BOSTON — Two Massachusetts men have been arrested in connection with an alleged scheme to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits through small retail stores they operated in Boston.
Antonio Bonheur, 74, of Mattapan, and Saul Alisme, 21, of Hyde Park, are slated to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Boston on a charge of one count of food stamp fraud, United States Attorney Leah B. Foley announced during a news conference.
“These men abused one of the government’s most critical safety net programs for their own financial gain,” Foley said. “This is taxpayer money meant to keep people from going hungry. These defendants decided to take it for themselves.”
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According to federal prosecutors, Bonheur owned the Jesula Variety Store, and Alisme owned the Saul Mache Mixe Store, both small storefronts in Boston’s Mattapan section.
Despite their limited size—Jesula Variety Store measured about 150 square feet and Saul Mache Mixe Store about 500 square feet—their SNAP redemptions ranged from $100,000 to $500,000 per month, far exceeding what legitimate food sales could support, federal prosecutors alleged.
By comparison, a full-service supermarket in the same area redeems about $82,000 per month, Foley noted.
“They were not full-service groceries. It would be a huge stretch to even call them convenience stores. In fact, the only thing convenient about these stores was how easy it was to commit SNAP benefit fraud,” Foley said.
Investigators say transaction data revealed suspicious patterns: more than 70% of SNAP transactions at the stores exceeded $95, a level typically associated with larger supermarkets.
Undercover operations are said to have confirmed SNAP benefits were exchanged for cash on multiple occasions, and both stores were observed selling liquor for SNAP benefits, a violation of federal law.
Prosecutors say Bonheur and Alisme themselves worked the cash registers and personally exchanged SNAP benefits for cash.
“Simply put, there is no plausible way SNAP-eligible food could have been purchased from these stores for this long. Yet, these two stores are alleged to have illicitly trafficked nearly $7 million in SNAP benefits. The fraud was shocking and glaring,” Foley said.
Authorities also allege the defendants sold MannaPack meals, a donated food product intended for food-insecure children overseas, for about $8 per package. These meals are funded entirely by charitable donations and are not authorized for retail sale.
“These products are not for sale anywhere. Yet Bonheur and Alisme were selling them in their stores for nearly $10 a pack, profiting from food literally intended for starving children in disaster zones,” Foley said.
Prosecutors claim the defendants relied almost entirely on USDA-funded SNAP redemptions as income because both stores carried little legitimate food inventory and generated minimal lawful revenue.
Bonheur and Alisme allegedly used multiple bank accounts to conceal the source of funds.
“Let me be clear. SNAP is the largest food assistance program in this country. It exists to feed families, not to bankroll criminals,” Foley added.
The charge of food stamp fraud greater than $100 carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
Read the full complaint against Bonheur and Alisme:
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