A convenience store owner has learned his fate after being found guilty in a long-running plot to swindle a food assistance program for low-income women and children.
Hassan Abdellatif, 37, of Chicago, received a four-year prison sentence on Tuesday.
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According to prosecutors, Abdellatif worked with eight other convenience store owners or employees from the Chicago area to illegally redeem WIC payments between 2010 and 2018.
The “Women, Infants, and Children” program is federally funded and aims to provide healthy food to low-income children, as well as pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women.
According to authorities, Abdellatif and others allowed clients to use WIC checks to pay for things that were not covered by the program. In many situations, the artifacts were sold at exorbitant rates.
According to prosecutors, the conspiracy encompassed 10 stores that redeemed more than $19 million in WIC checks.
Last year, a federal jury convicted Abdellatif of all five counts against him, including two counts of wire fraud, one count of fraudulently obtaining government benefits, and two counts of deliberately neglecting to submit corporation tax reports.
In addition to prison time, a judge sentenced Abdellatif to pay approximately $8.8 million in compensation to the government.
Assistant US Attorney Kartik Raman called the conduct “extremely serious, complex, and wide-ranging in scope.”
“Vulnerable communities are impacted when individuals steal from those programs,” Raman wrote to the judge before sentencing.
Eight more people were charged as a result of the inquiry. All have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentence.
