3 Plead Guilty in Record Food Stamp Fraud

Three New York businessmen pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of laundering more than $82 million in food stamps, in the largest food stamp fraud case since the program was established in 1964, the government announced.

The Agriculture Department reported that the Brooklyn men’s meat company laundered food stamps for other retailers who had obtained the coupons illegally over the past decade. In 1990 alone, the firm illegally redeemed more than $12.8 million in food stamps, the government said.

The case dwarfs what had been the department’s largest food stamp fraud case, that of a Toledo, Ohio, grocer convicted in January of illegally redeeming $7.2 million in food stamps.

Jeff Rush, the department’s deputy assistant inspector general, said other retailers suspected of multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud would soon face charges.

The Agriculture Department expects to spend about $18 billion on food stamp benefits this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. More than 25 million people--one in 10 Americans--receive food stamps. More than 220,000 retailers accept the stamps from customers and then redeem them at banks for cash.

Tuesday’s case involved officials of Norbert Wholesale Meat Corp., also known as J&D; Meats Inc. Company Chairman David Garced and his brother, company treasurer Norbert Garced, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to felony charges of food stamp fraud, the department said. Their nephew, company President Jose Vasquez, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of food stamp fraud.