MINNEAPOLIS – LaTasha Thomas, age 39, was sentenced in United States District Court to 12 months imprisonment followed by a year of supervised release for one count of mail fraud, and ordered to repay $325,159 in restitution to the United States Department of Agriculture, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen.
Over the course of two years, Latasha Thomas conspired with her daughter Ambrosia Thomas, and other relative Cynthia Thomas, to defraud the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”). Their scheme focused on the unlawful acquisition of Electronic Benefit Transfer (“EBT”) cards, which are issued by the state government to qualifying applicants and loaded monthly with money from SNAP. Legitimate applicants can 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. Then, they submitted these fake licenses to Hennepin County in applications for EBT cards. Believing their SNAP allotments could be increased if the purported recipients were confined to bedrest, the Thomases repeatedly claimed in their fraudulent applications to be women experiencing “high risk pregnancy.” They bolstered these claims with fake doctor’s notes they manufactured for the purpose of maximizing their theft of government funds…