Store owner charged with trafficking food stamps
A Guthrie convenience store owner is facing 10 counts of trafficking food stamp benefits after admitting he would exchange the benefits of his customers for a fee. The store owner has been arrested now three times this year involving his store.
On the same day that Ali Asghar Khan, 38, was arrested and booked on commercial gambling charges, he was hit with an additional 10 felony charges on July 2 from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (ODHS) Inspector General.
Related story: Commercial gambling machines leads to 8 men charged
Khan pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in April for selling beer to a minor during an undercover sting in February.
Khan, who operates the G-Mart convenience store located at 823 W. Noble, admitted to investigators he would slide clients’ government issued Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) debit cards (Access Oklahoma cards) and would give customers cash while keeping a portion of the amount drawn off the card.
SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, was established for a nutritious diet for low-income families and individuals at approved retail stores.
G-Mart was approved for the SNAP service in May 2009.
According to a probable cause affidavit, ODHS received an anonymous complaint on Khan, who was selling SNAP benefits and charging approximately $20 per transaction.
A SNAP card holder was interviewed in March by an agent with ODHS and showed eight different transactions at the convenience store with the first one coming in April 2012 and the last transaction in January 2013. The card holder received a total of $700 in cash with a total transaction amount of $871.26. The difference leaves a possible fee amount of $171.26 for the transactions.
A second card holder was interviewed and admitted to trafficking the SNAP benefits. Documents shows four transactions totaling $484.71 in a three-month span from August 2012 to November 2012. The difference leaves a possible fee amount of $84.71 for the transactions.
A third card holder was also interviewed and admitted to trafficking the SNAP benefits. Documents show 17 transactions in the amount of $2,093.44 was withdrawn from January 2012 through January 2013. The difference leaves a possible fee amount of $393.44 for the transactions.
Khan faces two years imprisonment and/or a $5,000 fine on each count if found guilty. He has been released on a $5,000 bond and is scheduled to be back in the Logan County courtroom on August 22.
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The SNAP card should not have the option to get cash back.
I think this man should lose any opportunity to obtain any type of business license in this city or country since he chooses numerous times to abuse that business license! Time for him to get a real job!
Janey…that’s not how it happened. He would swipe their cards and then he would give them money out of the register. For instance he would say that they had 100.00 in purchases and he would only give them 75.00 back in cash. Then he would receive a deposit in his account for 100.00. The cash back option that is on the card will not work if all you have is food stamps on the card.