For thousands of New Yorkers who receive public subsidies to buy food, money loaded on their electronic cards disappeared before they could use them. In some cases, the beneficiaries discovered that they had the account completely emptied on the day of the accreditation. According to the Manhattan Prosecutor, behind these thefts there would be an organization that, over two and a half years, would have subtracted more than $7 million to the federal food aid program.
On Thursday, October 29, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg announced the incrimination of eight people, accused for various reasons of aggravated theft, identity theft and association to commit crimes. The survey, conducted together with the Department of Investigation of the city, reconstructed a system that would remain operational from April 2023 to September 2025, involving thousands of beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
SNAP, also known as food molds, is the main US food service program for people with low incomes. It is funded by the federal government and allows beneficiaries to purchase certain food products through an electronic card called EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer), which works similarly to a debit card. The funds are loaded periodically and can be used in authorized stores.
The system described by investigators used the operation of these cards. According to the accusation, the group would have obtained card numbers and PIN codes, mainly through the skimming, a technique that allows to copy the card data by means of devices applied to the payment terminals. The stolen information would then be made of cloned cards, which could be used without the legitimate owners noticing theft.
To cash out money, the inquiries would open several commercial accounts using the names of deli, bodega and grocery stores, some actually existing and others invented. These accounts were associated with POS terminals and bank accounts controlled by the group. The cloned cards were then used to make transactions that were like normal purchases in stores, but that actually transferred funds to the organization’s accounts.
Investigators also claim that the group monitored the credit dates of the subsidies, so as to make the transactions immediately after loading the money. In this way he could empty the cards before the beneficiaries could use them to do the shopping.
Some of the operations would have been organized in the back of a gastronomy in Yonkers, Westchester County, North of the Bronx, and in some hotel rooms. The photographs collected during the survey would show numerous POS terminals, long sequences of receipts and dozens of cloned EBT cards. During the Thursday hearing, the prosecutors described these environments as a real fraud factory.
According to the prosecutor’s reconstruction, Belal Hauter, a 34-year-old manager, would coordinate the opening of commercial accounts. Gregory Fabiani, 46, and Abdulla Aezah, 35, would instead contribute to the management of the accounts and the technical operation of the terminals. Milton Rios, 53 years old, and Yvette Rivera, 58, are accused of opening further banking and commercial accounts used in the system.
Some of the subtracted money would be used to buy luxury cars, while tens of thousands of dollars would be transferred abroad, even in Yemen. Hauter, Fabiani and Aezah declared themselves not guilty during the first hearing and remained in custody. Fabiani and Aezah defenders challenged the prosecution’s reconstruction, claiming that their assists had more limited roles than Hauter. Fabiani’s attorney also stated that his client legally managed their payment processing activities.
The case is part of a wider problem, which concerns the safety of the cards used to distribute food aid in the United States. According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, the federal body that controls the use of public resources, between October 2022 and December 2024, the US states have reimbursed more than $ 320 million in subtracted subsidies through electronic fraud. It is a figure that concerns only the benefits reimbursed and therefore does not represent the total amount of thefts.
Also getting a refund has become more complicated. The Federal programme which allowed the beneficiaries to pay for electronicfts was not extended for subtracted sums after 20 December 2024. The state of New York also interrupted the collection of refund requests for stolen SNAP benefits on 30 September 2025. According to the prosecutor, many of the people involved in the newly discovered fraud have never recovered the lost money.
To reduce the risk of new thefts, last July, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the introduction of new EBT cards equipped with microchips, more difficult to clone than current ones, which still use the magnetic band. Distribution should begin in the first three months of 2027.
Meanwhile, access to the same food aids has become more restrictive. The new federal rules on working requirements, introduced by the Trump administration’s budget law, brought about 26,500 residents of New York to lose the SNAP benefits during 2026, according to the data reported by the Municipality. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration started a campaign to help these people apply again.
For those who have been involved in the fraud disputed by the Manhattan Prosecution, however, the problem has often been immediate: to present themselves to the cashier of a supermarket with a card still physically valid, but no longer the money needed to pay the expense.
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