Operation T-Bone: EBT fraud, money wired to Yemen...

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by katzpaw

That's a pretty complicated and inefficient method to fund terrorism.


A store buys a $100 EBT card for $50, buys $100 of EBT approved stuff at Walmart, sells it in their store, and then sends some of their monthly profits back to the middle east. All this for maybe an extra 25% markup on selected products.

It's much more than 25%. Assuming 25% is the markup that is what they are marking it up over the store cost so that's a 60% profit margin. Plus there is no paper trail so they can stick all the money in their pocket.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by greywar

So 252 out of 40,000

Forgive me if I think tarnishing 40,000 because of 252 of them is a broad brush.

As noted in the story they had to cut it off, these are only the ones that got caught.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by shadowne

I might be reading it incorrectly, but the story seems to be more about the fraud on the part of the owners.

It's both the EBT card users and the store. This has been going on for decades, it's not something new.

[joeymags]

I meant the overall ownership structure and shadowy dealings in general - I have no idea what they could be up to besides this EBT stuff. As someone mentioned, look at stuff that came out from that guy Ali Alsani - I don't think all these gas stations owned throughout rural stickville USA by guys like Ali is a coincidence. Especially if you look at how the ownership of just his one gas station has changed several times.

Originally Posted by katzpaw

That's a pretty complicated and inefficient method to fund terrorism.
A store buys a $100 EBT card for $50, buys $100 of EBT approved stuff at Walmart, sells it in their store, and then sends some of their monthly profits back to the middle east. All this for maybe an extra 25% markup on selected products.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by greywar

All representing tiny minorities with which folks use a broad paintbrush to tar entire groups with.....

Yes...yes it does represent that.

Also a great bit of excellent work by the police involved.

You say that about every incident of fraud reported in the MSM.

How many "tiny minorities" have to be added up before you care ?

[shadowne]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

It's both the EBT card users and the store. This has been going on for decades, it's not something new.

Yes, I am aware. The twist with this story is the money going to Yemen.

The gov't goes more aggressively after the stores, as they should. Easier to enforce/haul away the source.

[HappyTexan]

It never mentioned anything about going after the people that sold their EBT cards to these store workers.