Four in Mass. accused of $1.1 million SNAP and unemployment benefit fraud

Four people from Massachusetts are charged with fraudulently obtaining more than $1.1 million in federal food assistance and COVID-era unemployment benefits, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The scheme used more than 100 stolen identities to purloin $440,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Prosecutors say the benefits were used to buy food in bulk from BJ's and other stores. The suspects allegedly then sold the food at El Primo Restaurant in Leominster, which was managed by one of the accused, Raul Fernandez Vicioso, of Fitchburg.

Joel Vicioso Fernandez, of Fitchburg, Roman Vequiz Fernandez and Coralba Albarracin Siniva also were charged. Roman Vequiz Fernandez and Albarracin Siniva are Venezuelan nationals living in Leominster.

Prosecutors say the suspects also fraudulently collected more than $700,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits from six states, including Massachusetts.

According to the complaint, Rhode Island officials first became aware of the SNAP fraud in June 2024 during an internal audit, which found more than 100 beneficiaries were listed as living in just two households. Some of those same fraudulent identities were also being used in Massachusetts.

Rhode Island officials flagged the issue to Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, which investigated and found about $115,000 in benefits were obtained by fraud.

The department never referred the cases to the federal government or any other law enforcement, according to U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley. At a press conference Tuesday, she said state officials only "turned those [benefit] cards off."

"They did not make any referrals to any of these federal agencies or to the U.S. attorney's office so that we could go out and find the person who used stolen identities," she said. "Because just shutting those off is not going to stop that person from going and obtaining new stolen identities and continuing the same fraud."

A Department of Transitional Assistance spokesperson disputed the claim that federal authorities weren't made aware of the fraud by state officials. They said that by the time Mass. was informed in June 2024, Rhode Island officials had already reported it to the federal U.S. Department of Agriculture. DTA submitted data and met with the USDA team to support the investigation, they said.

“DTA takes every allegation of fraud seriously and has strong measures in place to identify and report fraud to protect the $2.6 billion dollar SNAP program that feeds Massachusetts families," a spokesperson said in a statement. "These cases were identified and reported by the state of Rhode Island to Massachusetts DTA and the USDA’s Office of Inspector General. As soon as they were reported, Massachusetts DTA acted to immediately close the cases and work with the federal government to support their investigation."

Just before the U.S. attorney's press conference and when few details had been released, Gov. Maura Healey was asked about the case. She said she supported the prosecutions.

"As a former attorney general and as a prosecutor who regularly went after fraud, waste and abuse, I support those efforts," she said, adding, "we want to make sure all programs are maintained with integrity."

Healey said the state works with the federal government on these types of cases, and pointed to a $7 million food stamp fraud scheme that Massachusetts officials investigated and then referred to federal prosecutors.

The suspects allegedly stole the identities of both adults and children, investigators said. One Massachusetts family of four had difficulty receiving SNAP benefits because the mother's identity was stolen.

Joel Vicioso Fernandez, Roman Vequiz Fernandez and Coralba Albarracin Siniva were arrested Tuesday and scheduled to appear in Worcester federal court that day. A court date for Raul Fernandez Vicioso has not yet been set.

WBUR's Chris Van Buskirk contributed to this report.