Boston bodega owners charged in $7 million food stamp fraud scheme

Two Mattapan bodega owners are facing federal charges over allegations they trafficked nearly $7 million in food stamp benefits.

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said the two men exchanged cash for SNAP benefits meant to buy food, often redeeming several times in benefits what a legitimate grocery store does in a month.

Foley said Wednesday in a press conference that the men each operated small storefronts on Blue Hill Avenue, with little food on the shelves.

“The only thing convenient about these stores was how easy it was to commit SNAP benefit fraud,” Foley said.

According to the complaint, Antonio Bonheur, 74, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Haiti, redeemed $6.8 million in benefits starting in 2022. Beginning in May of this year, 21-year-old Saul Alisme, a legal permanent resident also from Haiti, redeemed $122,000. Both men are charged with a single count of food stamp fraud.

The two businesses were targeted earlier this year by undercover officers who exchanged food stamps for cash, the U.S. attorney said.

“Observations made by the undercovers showed that it was just as easy for anyone with an EBT card to walk into either store and convert hundreds of dollars in SNAP benefits into cash,” Foley said.

One undercover officer paid $120 in food stamps in exchange for $100 in cash, according to federal prosecutors. Authorities claim the two men even sold liquor for SNAP money.

The shop owners were also selling MannaPacks, packaged meals intended to be distributed for free in food insecure countries like Haiti, and not authorized for retail sale, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Bonheur's defense attorney declined to comment Wednesday. Alisme's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some 42 million people in America receive SNAP benefits. More than 1 million in Massachusetts use them.

Massachusetts administers the benefits through the EBT debit card program. Foley alleged one of the bodega owners had an EBT card in his name and accused the state of not properly vetting his benefits application.

But Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement and in a post on social media that her office tipped off the feds to the SNAP redeeming scheme last November.

“My administration reported this suspicious activity to the federal government for investigation and prosecution over a year ago," Healey said in a statement. "As a former Attorney General and now Governor, I will always support prosecution to the fullest extent of the law for anyone who engages in fraud or abuse of a federal program or any program.”

The Trump administration has demanded that states provide data on people who receive food stamps, including their immigration status, for what the administration says is an investigation into fraud and abuse of the benefits program. In early December, the U.S. agriculture secretary said the government would withhold money from states that don’t comply.

At the press conference, Foley faulted states including Massachusetts for refusing to provide data amid the Trump administration’s fraud investigation.

But a Healey spokesperson said in a statement that the Mattapan fraud case is unrelated to the state's decision not to share personal data with the administration.

"Massachusetts will continue to stand with the families of our state by not turning over their private information to President Trump and ICE," the statement said.

The food stamp charges come as the Trump administration has moved to cut back SNAP benefits more broadly. Massachusetts is among the states which has pushed back on the efforts.

In October, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's demand that state's turn over data. Massachusetts is party to that lawsuit, in addition to a separate suit over attempts to strip food stamps from some green card holders.