Prairie State Wire

A Chicago grocery store owner has been sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison for fraudulently redeeming millions of dollars in benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Yousef Abu Alhawa, who owned a grocery store in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on the city’s Southwest Side, admitted to fraudulently redeeming or causing to redeem SNAP and WIC benefits for non-eligible items or cash between 2011 and 2019. He also redeemed benefits on behalf of stores that were not eligible to participate in these programs. According to his plea agreement, Alhawa caused a loss of more than $8.3 million to SNAP and WIC.

Alhawa, 50, of Lockport, Illinois, pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and tax charges. The tax offenses involved filing false income tax returns for the years 2015 through 2017, resulting in federal and state tax losses exceeding $610,000.

U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger imposed a 42-month prison sentence on Wednesday and ordered Alhawa to pay $8.9 million in restitution to the U.S. Treasury, IRS, and State of Illinois.

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 Chicago Field Office of the FBI. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General provided assistance with the case.

“Defendant’s offense conduct was serious,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Mower argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “SNAP is the nation’s largest federally funded nutrition assistance program. His actions not only deprived those programs of vital financial resources that could otherwise have been made available to deserving recipients, but also risked sowing general disfavor and distrust of government benefit systems.”