N.J. grocery store owner admits $888K food stamps fraud scheme
Updated Posted
The 25-year-old owner of a Newark deli admitted Tuesday she defrauded the government out of $888,000 in a food stamps scheme she ran over more than six years.
Maria Teresa Venegas, of Newark, pleaded guilty to one count of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey said in a statement.
She faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced Jan. 19 for running the scheme at Jenny's Deli between November 2011 and February 2018. Charges are still pending against her father, Manuel Venegas, who is also accused in taking part in the scam.
Though SNAP recipients are only allowed to use their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards to buy certain food items, Venegas instead gave some customers cash by entering made-up dollar amounts for their purchases.
Authorities began looking into Jenny's Deli when they noticed an unusually high number of SNAP transactions.
In an example provided charging documents, a SNAP recipient only bought $5 in items. Venegas, though, debited $75 from the person's account, which was then credited to the deli's bank account. She gave the SNAP recipient a portion of the proceeds and kept the rest.
An undercover agent also made 20 purchases at Jenny's Deli using SNAP benefits in exchange for cash.
In total, Venegas stole $888,486.89.
In a similar case, the owners of M&R Supermarket on Irvine Turner Boulevard in Newark were charged last week with trading more than $5 million in SNAP debits for cash over three years.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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