PHILADELPHIA - Abdoulaye Diallo, 52, of Philadelphia, PA, was sentenced today to 42 months in prison for defrauding the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the federal food stamp program, announced Acting United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen.
Diallo owned and operated Brothers Food Market, a grocery store on Germantown Avenue near Venango Street in Philadelphia. On January 12, 2017, at a trial before the Honorable Cynthia M. Rufe and a federal jury, the jury convicted Diallo on all counts of the indictment. The jury convicted Diallo of conspiring with another individual to buy SNAP benefits for cash from those who had SNAP benefit cards (also known as PA Access cards) between September 2011 and February 2015. The jury also found Diallo guilty of exchanging SNAP benefits for cash on five different dates during that period, each of which constituted wire fraud and SNAP benefit fraud. The amount of money charged to the SNAP Program varied from $300 to almost $600 for each transaction.
.Between September of 2011 and March of 2015, Diallo submitted to USDA, on behalf of Brothers Food Market, fraudulent SNAP reimbursement requests for $1,063,541
In addition to the prison term, Judge Rufe imposed a term of supervised release of three years, restitution to USDA of $1,063,541, and a $1,300 assessment.
The case was investigated by the United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Floyd J. Miller and Albert S. Glenn.