Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have charged Antonio Bonheur and Saul Alisme with orchestrating a nearly $7 million Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud through two small stores in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood, which allegedly redeemed benefits at levels more typical of large supermarkets despite sparse inventory and limited customer traffic.
Federal authorities say Antonio Bonheur, a 74-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti, and Saul Alisme, a 21-year-old lawful permanent resident, ran two small bodegas in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood that bore little resemblance to fully stocked grocery stores.
According to federal investigators, one of the stores redeemed up to $500,000 in SNAP benefits in a single month, a volume more commonly associated with major supermarkets than corner shops, despite what officials described as sparse shelves and minimal foot traffic.
Undercover investigators reported that the stores trafficked in SNAP benefits by exchanging them for cash, and that profits were routed through secondary bank accounts. Investigators also allege the stores used SNAP funds to sell liquor and food packages that had been intended as overseas charity aid for starving children abroad.
Prosecutors say Bonheur is accused of redeeming about $6.8 million in SNAP benefits beginning in 2022.
In comments reported by The Daily Wire, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley characterized the case as evidence of significant weaknesses in welfare oversight and criticized states, including Massachusetts, for declining to share some recipient data with federal investigators during the Trump administration’s push to intensify enforcement against fraud. She warned that such fraud is not isolated, but widespread.
The alleged scheme has drawn attention to vulnerabilities in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which has approached roughly $100 billion in annual federal spending in recent years.
The Daily Wire article draws parallels between the Boston case and a larger fraud scandal in Minnesota involving defendants from the Somali immigrant community, where prosecutors have charged dozens of individuals in schemes targeting federally funded child nutrition, Medicaid housing and autism-related programs. In that case, authorities allege that hundreds of millions of dollars were diverted through sham nonprofits and shell companies. Law enforcement sources cited by The Daily Wire have also claimed that some of the stolen funds may have been routed overseas, including to Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, though those terrorism-related allegations remain under active federal investigation and have not been fully adjudicated in court.
Both cases, as framed by The Daily Wire, are cited by critics as examples of how small storefronts and shell entities can exploit weak controls and political resistance to federal scrutiny, allowing fraud to continue while taxpayers bear the cost and honest beneficiaries face heightened suspicion.
