PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Pennsylvania’s inspector general filed government fraud charges against 90 people in April and May, state officials announced Tuesday.
In total, the defendants owe $716,496 in restitution to the Commonwealth, the Office of State Inspector General said. They will be temporarily barred from receiving the benefits they allegedly defrauded, saving the state more money, according to the announcement.
The inspector general has filed felony charges against 85 of the defendants and misdemeanor charges against five others.
The agency alleges that these individuals “either traded away their government assistance or misrepresented their household circumstances and fraudulently received taxpayer-funded government benefits to which they were not entitled,” according to the statement.
The maximum penalty for public assistance fraud is seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine, the inspector general’s office said. In cases of fraud related to SNAP, cash assistance, and subsidized child care fraud, there is also a mandatory period during which a person is ineligible for the program that someone is alleged to have defrauded.
The Office of the Inspector General investigates and prosecutes fraud involving public benefits administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. In April and May 2023, the agency announced it had filed charges against 107 people in cases totaling more than $639,000.
CBS News Philadelphia reported earlier this month that several families were coming in Pennsylvania, New JerseyDelaware and New York found that the money on the EBT cards containing their SNAP benefits — formerly known as food stamps — was running low, often at stores in states or cities they have never visited. Experts say these cards don’t have a chip, but they do less safe and more susceptible to skimming devices.
The American Secret Service is to research that theft as part of a possible transnational organized crime scheme.
