Food stamp fraudsters stole $8M

From the Village Voice:

Federal prosecutors just announced they've charged four New Yorkers -- including two current city employees -- with mail fraud for stealing more than $8 million in food stamp benefits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The complaint, unsealed in Manhattan federal court today, accuses four New York women -- including three who either currently or previously worked for the city's Human Resources Administration -- of spending three years accessing computer databases to approve more than 1,500 food stamp cases under bogus names, addresses, and social security numbers.

One of the women, Alice Bradford, allegedly paid friends to use their mailing addresses, which she and Tori Jackson (who worked for the HRA from 2001 to 2010) passed onto Vanee Sykes, an HRA employee who would then assign phony names and income data and approve the fraudulent food stamp applications.

Also charged is a 30-year HRA veteran named Lois Johnson, who supposedly controlled a post office box to which several of the food stamp cards were sent.