{"id":20677,"date":"2016-02-22T19:14:16","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T03:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677"},"modified":"2016-02-22T19:14:16","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T03:14:16","slug":"convenience-store-owner-exchanged-food-stamps-cash-sentenced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677","title":{"rendered":"Convenience Store Owner Who Exchanged Food Stamps for Cash Sentenced"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ATLANTA\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"DepartmentA federal judge sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for using his\u00a0Decatur, Georgia, convenience store to run an illegal food stamp scheme, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tessema Lulseged<\/strong> allowed his customers to exchange their food stamp benefits for cash in a scheme that netted him $6.5 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

The judge ordered Lulseged to pay restitution in the amount of $5.9 million.\u00a0 Lulseged was convicted on these charges on July 7, 2015, after he pleaded guilty, according to authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of the food stamp program is to offer low-income citizens nutritional assistance, and this defendant undermined the program solely for his own profit and cost taxpayers more than $6.5 million,\u201d said U.S. Attorney John Horn.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Annually, officials said this type of fraudulent activity undermines this program by misdirecting millions of dollars of taxpayer funds from the purposes they were intended.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis case represents an individual systematically exploiting those in need and diverting U.S. funds intended for the needy to his own bank account.\u00a0 The FBI is pleased with its role in bringing this case forward for prosecution which resulted in today\u2019s federal prison sentence for Mr. Lulseged,\u201d said J. Britt Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

According to Horn, from January 2009 through April 2014, Lulseged operated Tess Market, Inc.,\u00a0 d\/b\/a Big T Supermarket, a convenience store in Decatur, Georgia.<\/span><\/p>\n

There, he unlawfully allowed his customers to exchange their food stamp benefits for cash at the rate of 60 cents on the dollar, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of the deal, Lulseged required customers to purchase eligible food products equal to 10% of the value of the transaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, if a customer wanted to sell $100 worth of food stamp benefits for $60, that customer also had to purchase $10 worth of eligible food products from Lulseged\u2019s store.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In executing search and seizure warrants in 2014, the government seized and forfeited over $700,000 in funds tainted by the fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for using his Decatur, Georgia, convenience store to run an illegal food stamp scheme, officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[2263,2262,1422,473],"class_list":["post-20677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-big-t-supermarket","tag-cash","tag-food-stamps","tag-fraud"],"yoast_head":"\nConvenience Store Owner Who Exchanged Food Stamps for Cash Sentenced<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A federal judge sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for using his Decatur, Georgia, convenience store to run an illegal food stamp scheme, officials said.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Convenience Store Owner Who Exchanged Food Stamps for Cash Sentenced\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A federal judge sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for using his Decatur, Georgia, convenience store to run an illegal food stamp scheme, officials said.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Justice Notebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-23T03:14:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/food-stamp-program.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"408\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Raul\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\"},\"headline\":\"Convenience Store Owner Who Exchanged Food Stamps for Cash Sentenced\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-23T03:14:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677\"},\"wordCount\":328,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/food-stamp-program.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Big T Supermarket\",\"Cash\",\"Food stamps\",\"Fraud\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Home Main Slider\",\"U.S. Department of Justice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677\",\"name\":\"Convenience Store Owner Who Exchanged Food Stamps for Cash Sentenced\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/food-stamp-program.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-23T03:14:16+00:00\",\"description\":\"A federal judge sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for using his Decatur, Georgia, convenience store to run an illegal food stamp scheme, officials said.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=20677#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/food-stamp-program.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/food-stamp-program.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":408},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"description\":\""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"width\":675,\"height\":231,\"caption\":\"American Justice Notebook\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\",\"name\":\"Raul\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Raul\"},\"description\":\"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Convenience Store Owner Who Exchanged Food Stamps for Cash Sentenced","description":"A federal judge sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for using his Decatur, Georgia, convenience store to run an illegal food stamp scheme, officials said.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Convenience Store Owner Who Exchanged Food Stamps for Cash Sentenced","og_description":"A federal judge sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for using his Decatur, Georgia, convenience store to run an illegal food stamp scheme, officials said.","og_url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677","og_site_name":"American Justice Notebook","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook","article_published_time":"2016-02-23T03:14:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":408,"url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/food-stamp-program.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Raul","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Raul","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677"},"author":{"name":"Raul","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0"},"headline":"Convenience Store Owner Who Exchanged Food Stamps for Cash Sentenced","datePublished":"2016-02-23T03:14:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677"},"wordCount":328,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/food-stamp-program.jpg","keywords":["Big T Supermarket","Cash","Food stamps","Fraud"],"articleSection":["Home Main Slider","U.S. Department of Justice"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677","name":"Convenience Store Owner Who Exchanged Food Stamps for Cash Sentenced","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/food-stamp-program.jpg","datePublished":"2016-02-23T03:14:16+00:00","description":"A federal judge sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for using his Decatur, Georgia, convenience store to run an illegal food stamp scheme, officials said.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=20677#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/food-stamp-program.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/food-stamp-program.jpg","width":750,"height":408},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","name":"American Justice Notebook","description":""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization","name":"American Justice Notebook","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","width":675,"height":231,"caption":"American Justice Notebook"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0","name":"Raul","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","caption":"Raul"},"description":"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.","sameAs":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20677"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20685,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20677\/revisions\/20685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}