The owner of a Chicago grocery store has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for fraudulently redeeming millions of dollars in benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
Yousef Abu Alhawa had a grocery store in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on Chicago’s southwest side. From 2011 to 2019, Alhawa fraudulently redeemed or caused to be redeemed SNAP and WIC benefits for ineligible items or cash, as well as redeemed SNAP and WIC benefits on behalf of establishments that were not eligible to participate in SNAP and WIC. Alhawa acknowledged in a plea agreement with the authorities that his actions resulted in a loss exceeding $8.3 million for those programs.
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Last year, Alhawa, 50, of Lockport, Illinois, pled guilty to wire fraud and tax offenses. The tax violations related to Alhawa’s filing of fake income tax returns from 2015 to 2017. The tax infractions resulted in a federal and state tax loss of almost $610,000.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger imposed the 42-month prison sentence and ordered Alhawa to pay $8.9 million in restitution to the United States Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, and the state of Illinois.
Approximately 1.9 million Illinois citizens rely on the SNAP program to eat. However, criminals attack the software since it is based on antiquated technology. Since 2023, Illinois has granted almost 40,000 claims for stolen SNAP benefits worth more than $20 million.
The sentencing was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Ramsey E. Covington, Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago; and Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office. The US Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General also assisted.
“Defendant’s offensive conduct was serious,” Assistant US Attorney Paul Mower stated in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “SNAP is the country’s largest federally sponsored nutrition assistance program. His actions not only deprived those programs of critical financial resources that could have been made accessible to eligible participants, but they also risked instilling widespread disdain and suspicion of government benefit systems.”
In May, the Department of Justice prosecuted six persons in New York with stealing more than $66 million in food stamps from SNAP.
According to a dashboard tracking SNAP fraud from 2023 to 2025, Illinois has reported the fourth-highest amount to the federal government.
USDA Secretary Brook Rollins wrote on social media in May:
“Let me be clear. If you are abusing the system and committing SNAP fraud — just know that we will find you. We will arrest you. We will convict you. No warnings. No second chances.”
