PROVIDENCE – A supervisor for the Rhode Island Department of Human Services is accused of fraudulently making use of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha .
The scheme employed by the 57-year-old Warwick woman, Nadine Jean Baptiste, involved the electronic benefit transfer cards that help legitimate food aid recipients pay for food, federal prosecutors say.
Baptiste, they say, repeatedly checked on the balances of individual aid recipients by telephone and she frequently changed the pin numbers for their SNAP cards.
Some of these recipients were minors and some were homeless, prosecutors say.
Complaints prompt investigation in 2023
Some aid recipients, prosucotors say, complained to the Rhode Island Office of Internal Audit on a fraud hotline last year, asserting that their cards had not arrived in the mail or the cards had not been provided directly by RIDHS.
An investigation led to Baptiste, who was arrested Tuesday at her office, and one other person, say prosecutors.