Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. and New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata announced on Thursday, October 29, 2026, the indictment of eight people for allegedly conspiring to steal more than $7 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) between April 2023 and September 2025 — food money that, prosecutors say, was drained from thousands of victims' Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) accounts, in many cases before the rightful owners could buy groceries at all.
Source: Manhattan District Attorney's Office
The eight are charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree, as well as various counts of Grand Larceny and Identity Theft. The charges are allegations: the District Attorney's Office notes that an indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, with the factual account drawn from court documents and statements made on the record in court.
How the alleged scheme worked
As alleged, the defendants used the names of existing or fictitious delis to obtain merchant processing accounts and point-of-sale (POS) systems able to process EBT transactions. They then allegedly used stolen EBT account numbers and personal identification numbers (PINs) — largely obtained using card skimmers — to create clones of victims' EBT cards. Knowing when benefit funds would be loaded, they allegedly swiped the cloned cards almost immediately after the money landed, often swiping until the accounts were drained. In several cases, the DA's office said, legitimate card owners tried to use their cards the very day their benefits loaded, only to find the accounts already empty.
"SNAP and EBT fraud harms New Yorkers in need of assistance and the New Yorkers whose tax dollars fund these essential programs," District Attorney Bragg said. "As alleged, this conspiracy created fraudulent merchant processing accounts for fraudulent delis and paid themselves by repeatedly swiping stolen EBT cards at point-of-sale systems associated with those accounts. The defendants allegedly tracked the timing of benefit funds and drained accounts before the legitimate SNAP recipient could buy food and other necessities, eventually stealing more than $7 million."
Who prosecutors say did what
Belal Hauter, 34, allegedly led the conspiracy, opening or directing co-conspirators to open numerous merchant processing accounts in the names of various delis, bodegas and grocery stores, including a deli where several defendants worked, the DA's office said. The group also allegedly opened numerous bank accounts linked to those processing accounts, so EBT transaction money flowed directly into accounts under their control. Gregory Fabiani, 46, and Abdulla Aezah, 35, allegedly helped open the accounts and provided technical back-end support for the accounts and POS machines, while others allegedly ran thousands of transactions on the machines. Milton Rios, 53, and Yvette Rivera, 58, allegedly opened additional merchant processing and bank accounts for the conspiracy. Three further defendants are among the eight indicted; the roles prosecutors attribute to each person are allegations to be tested in court.
Photographic evidence in the case, prosecutors said, showed members of the alleged conspiracy operating what was essentially a fraud factory from the back room of a Yonkers deli and from hotels — numerous POS systems, strings of receipts and dozens of cloned EBT cards, seized under a court-authorised warrant. The stolen funds were allegedly used to buy multiple luxury vehicles and to send tens of thousands of dollars to Yemen and elsewhere internationally.
DOI Commissioner Shihata said the alleged crimes "not only resulted in the pilfering of public funds from a critical City-administered food program, but also left vulnerable New Yorkers without essential benefits to purchase groceries." She said the defendants allegedly stole EBT card information and opened numerous accounts in the names of real and fictitious delis to gain access to merchant accounts and drain more than $7 million, with the money then allegedly used for luxury vehicles and sent internationally.
The wider EBT skimming problem
The case lands on top of a years-long skimming crisis around EBT cards, which long relied on magnetic-stripe technology that is far easier to copy than chip cards. Independent reporting on New York's EBT fraud problem has put the scale in the tens of millions of dollars statewide, with earlier bodega-based cases in the city involving still larger sums — the background that led DOI to investigate and publish a 2025 report on the threat this kind of fraud poses to public resources. Commissioner Shihata said DOI fully supports the move to more secure chip-enabled EBT cards, which New York State will roll out in the first quarter of 2027.
Prosecutors say many victims in this case never received reimbursement for the stolen benefits. The DA's office thanked Grand Street Settlement and the office of Councilmember Christopher Marte for help with victim outreach in the case.
Who is prosecuting, and what happens next
Assistant District Attorneys Luis Morales, Dennis Dillon and Kofi Sansculotte, chief of the Financial Frauds Bureau, are handling the prosecution, under Investigation Division supervisors Judy Salwen and Jodie Kane, the DA's office said. At DOI, the investigation was led by Special Investigator Jessica Rivas with Acting Deputy Inspector General Alexandra Davie and Acting Inspector General Christopher McKeogh of DOI's Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Social Services. The defendants now face the Supreme Court case in Manhattan, where the allegations — conspiracy, grand larceny and identity theft — will be tested; no trial date or plea was announced in Thursday's release, and each defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
For New York's Punjabi and other immigrant families — many of whom shop at the same small delis and bodegas named in cases like this, and some of whom rely on SNAP themselves — the practical lesson in the indictment is about timing and vigilance: prosecutors say the alleged draining happened within moments of benefits loading, which is why officials are pushing chip cards and why recipients are urged to check balances and change PINs regularly, advice long given by benefit agencies during the skimming wave.