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Bridgeport Deli Operator Must Pay $199K Restitution In Food Stamp Case

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A 47-year-old Bridgeport man was sentenced Tuesday to three weeks in prison and ordered to pay nearly $200,000 in restitution for illegally redeeming food stamp benefits at a grocery store he operated in Bridgeport.

M&J Deli Market is a grocery and convenience store located at 988 State St. in Bridgeport.

M&J Deli Market is a grocery and convenience store located at 988 State St. in Bridgeport.

Photo Credit: Google Maps

U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Deirdre M. Daly said Khalid Aboutayeb was also sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford to three months of home confinement and three years of supervised release and pay $199,505 in restitution.

The federal Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP, uses federal tax dollars to subsidize low-income households to increase their food-purchasing power to achieve a more nutritious diet. 

Aboutayeb operated the M&J Deli Market, a grocery and convenience store at 988 State St. in Bridgeport.

On Dec. 17, 2014, he pleaded guilty to unlawful use of food stamp benefits. In pleading guilty, he admitted that he and others, including his sister, Jamilia Aboutayeb, unlawfully exchanged customers’ food stamp benefits for ineligible items and cash at the M&J Deli Market from December 2011 to February 2013. 

The investigation revealed that more than $285,000 in illegal SNAP benefits were redeemed at the store.

On Jan. 8, 2015, Jamilia Aboutayeb pleaded guilty, admitting doing the same unlawful exchange at M&J Deli Market from June 2013 to March 2014. On May 1, 2015, she was sentenced to five days in prison, time already served, six months of home confinement and three years of supervised release. She also was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $69,209.

SNAP recipients purchase food items at retail food stores through the use of an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, and SNAP benefits may be accepted by authorized retailers only in exchange for eligible items. 

Items such as alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, paper goods and soaps are not eligible for purchase with Food Stamp benefits, and it is a violation of the rules and regulations governing the food stamp program to allow benefits to be used to purchase ineligible items. 

SNAP benefits may not lawfully be exchanged for cash under any circumstances. 

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