3 Minnesotans charged in extensive food stamp fraud case Article by: CHAO XIONG and PAUL WALSH , Star Tribune Updated: March 5, 2014 - 9:17 PM Three Minnesotans allegedly used food stamps from homeless people to buy thousands of dollars in soda and ramen noodles that were shipped to Liberia for resale, the first fraud of its kind in Minnesota that authorities can recall. Investigators said Wednesday that they believe the criminal activity is far more extensive than what was uncovered in an 18-month investigation of the suspects, one of whom is a former state employee. Nevertheless, investigators were able to obtain enough evidence over a five-month period in 2012 to build a case and prosecute. “I’m certain that we could have extended the investigation and we would’ve found more fraud, but at the end of the day, we wanted to limit it to that time period because that’s the time period we have corroboration from store video,” said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. On Wednesday, Choi’s office charged Noni S. Snider, 39, of Eden Prairie, and Walter C. Cooper, 38, of Plymouth, with wrongfully obtaining public assistance and conspiracy to commit a felony. Nyla J. Newburgh, 40, of Minneapolis, was charged with gross-misdemeanor conspiracy. startribune/local/west/248613571.html
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 04:43:23 +0000
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