A New Hope, Minn., woman was sentenced last week to a year in federal prison and ordered to pay over $325,000 in restitution for her role in an elaborate scheme with two others to defraud the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”).
Latasha Thomas, 39, was convicted on one count of mail fraud and will owe restitution to the United States Department of Agriculture, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen on Friday. Thomas’s prison sentence will be followed by one year of supervised release.
Court documents detail that over the course of two years, Thomas conspired with her daughter, Ambrosia Thomas, and another relative, Cynthia Thomas, also known as Sofia Gold, to unlawfully acquire Electronic Benefit Transfer (“EBT”) cards, which are issued by the state government to qualifying applicants and loaded monthly with money from SNAP. Legitimate SNAP recipients are allowed to use their EBT cards to purchase groceries and make ATM withdrawals.
Thomas and her co-conspirators devised a scheme to acquire cards under false pretenses and defraud the program. They created fake Minnesota temporary drivers’ licenses using false names, with each license picturing one of the Thomases. They then submitted the fake licenses to Hennepin County in applications for EBT cards.
In furtherance of their scheme to acquire maximum benefits, the Thomases repeatedly claimed in their fraudulent applications to be women experiencing “high risk pregnancy” and claimed they were confined to bedrest. They even created fake doctor’s notes they manufactured for the purpose of maximizing their theft of government funds, court documents say.
The Thomases directed the state to send the EBT cards to Cynthia Thomas’s apartment in Roseville, where she was living under the false name of Sofia Gold, a name that appeared on one of the scheme’s fraudulently obtained cards. When law enforcement searched Cynthia’s apartment in Roseville, they encountered her there and found several pieces of mail addressed to pseudonyms used in the scheme. In the inside part of the apartment building’s mailbox—accessible only to building management and mail carriers—law enforcement found notes indicating that mail should be delivered to Cynthia’s apartment for several of the pseudonyms used in the scheme.
The Thomases withdrew government funds from ATMs and used them to make purchases. They also marketed and sold the use of the EBTs to others, arranging for their customers to pick up an EBT card, use an agreed-upon portion of its monthly allotment, return the card, and then pay the conspirators a fee (usually 50-60%) for the privilege. In total, the Thomases caused over $325,000 in losses to the SNAP program through their schemes.
Court document indicate that LaTasha Thomas is out of custody and will be ordered to surrender at an unspecified date and time to begin her incarceration.
Cynthia Thomas was convicted last year on mail fraud conspiracy and was sentenced in December to probation for three years. Ambrosia Thomas has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud, according to court documents, and her case is still in the pre-sentencing process.
All three defendants will be jointly responsible for restitution amount.
The case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Hennepin County Fraud Unit.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
