| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
Louisville Business Owner sentenced for Food Stamp fraud Former owner of the Meat Store also ordered to pay $545,000 restitution Click on headline for complete story detailing investigation From U.S. Attorney's office U.S. Department of Justice, Western District of Kentucky LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The former owner of a Louisville specialty food store was sentenced today in United States District Court, by Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell, to 33 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $545,000 restitution for committing Food Stamp fraud, announced United States Attorney Russell M. Coleman. There is no parole in the federal system. > "Today's nearly three year prison sentence and $545,000 returned to victims, underscores our commitment to investigating and prosecuting criminals who steal from federal programs," stated United States Attorney Russell Coleman. "This is a crime against tax payers - we will seek to restore every stolen dime that was meant to help those in need." Elias Estephane was convicted of defrauding a United States Department of Agriculture Program on November 9, 2017, following a four-day jury trial. Estephane was the owner of the Meat Store located at 1066 South 28th Street and the Meat Store 2 located at 4835 Poplar Level Road. Both were specialty food stores focusing on meats and both were accepted as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or Food Stamp retailers. SNAP is a program administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide food-purchasing assistance to low-income individuals through the issue of (EBT) cards to recipients. Evidence at trial showed that on multiple occasions Estephane traded cash for SNAP benefits, in violation of program rules that only permit benefits to be exchanged for eligible food items. Estephane generally paid customers fifty cents on the dollar for their benefits. In 2015, the USDA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began investigating the Meat Store's redemption of SNAP benefits. They targeted the Meat Store because it had a significantly higher level of redemption of SNAP benefits compared to similar stores in the area. Specifically, the Meat Store's month-to-month SNAP redemptions in 2015 were around 20 times the average redemptions from similar stores in the same geographic area. During the course of the investigation, USDA and FBI sent two individuals into the Meat Store to attempt to sell SNAP benefits for cash. Between September 1, 2015, and July 12, 2016, the two individuals exchanged SNAP benefits for cash with defendant Estephane at the Meat Store on nine different occasions, eight of which were captured on video. Sometimes the individuals would present multiple SNAP EBT cards in different names during the undercover transactions and request cash from all of them. During the trial, the United States submitted surveillance video of the Meat Store from four different days then compared transaction data with the video, flagging instances in which people spent $100 or more but left the store holding only one bag. Further the United States had five customer witnesses and one former employee testify. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Amanda E. Gregory and Stephanie M. Zimdahl, with the assistance of paralegal Mary Kennedy, and was investigated by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This story was posted on 2018-02-14 02:39:57
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Kentucky:
KY providing financial assistance to family foster caregivers Marshall County High School shooting court information KYEM State EOC monitoring heavy rain and flooding Former Campbell Co. KY, District Court Judge pleads guilty Sen. Max Wise's Legislative Update - Fri 9 Feb 2018 Bidding begins on batches of Big Bone bison NY man posing as Publishers Clearing House rep pleads guilty Applications for $10k Leopold Award due Apr 15 Kentucky Flu Epidemic Influenza-related deaths reach 100 Senator Max Wise's Legislative Update - Fri 2 Feb 2018 View even more articles in topic Kentucky |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
