A Detroit couple has admitted they spent nearly a decade gaming Michigan’s food-assistance system, pleading guilty in federal court yesterday to a scheme that investigators say siphoned at least $1.1 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Prosecutors say 34-year-old Kirk Woodley and his girlfriend, 31-year-old Chantel Peavy, used stolen identities and fraudulent applications filed with the state of Michigan to secure benefits. Those benefits were then trafficked or spent at Metro Detroit stores instead of going to the people who were actually eligible for help.
How investigators say the scheme worked
Federal agents say Woodley and Peavy submitted dozens of SNAP applications to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services using personal information stolen from people across the country, according to ClickOnDetroit. Once the applications were approved, investigators say the couple passed the benefit cards to middlemen who handled the dirty work: selling, spending or otherwise liquidating the funds.
One witness told investigators Woodley regularly supplied between two and 24 Electronic Benefit Transfer cards per month and was paid roughly $100 for each card that came back, plus about $10 in cash per card, according to court records cited by ClickOnDetroit. Federal authorities say the conspiracy ran from about May 2015 through mid-2024, and they arrived at the $1.1 million total by tallying the number of victim applications and the benefits that were issued…