Minnesota Woman Locked Up for $325K SNAP Fraud.

WHAT HAPPENED: A Minnesota woman was sentenced to just one year in prison for defrauding the federal government of more than $325,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

WHO WAS INVOLVED: Latasha Thomas, two of her relatives, federal prosecutors, and federal taxpayers.

WHEN & WHERE: The fraudulent actions took place over two years in Minnesota, with sentencing announced last week.

IMPACT: Thomas was ordered to repay $325,159 in restitution to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Latasha Thomas, a 39-year-old Minnesota resident, has been sentenced to one year in federal prison after being convicted of mail fraud for orchestrating a scheme to steal benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Federal prosecutors said Thomas worked for more than two years with her daughter, Ambrosia Thomas, and another relative, Cynthia Thomas, to unlawfully obtain Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards funded through SNAP. Investigators said the group used fake Minnesota temporary driver’s licenses containing false names and photographs of the Thomases to apply for benefits through Hennepin County.

Prosecutors said the defendants also submitted fabricated medical documentation, falsely claiming they were women experiencing “high-risk pregnancies” in order to increase the amount of SNAP benefits loaded onto the cards each month. The EBT cards were mailed to an apartment in Roseville linked to Cynthia Thomas, who allegedly lived there under the alias Sofia Gold. Law enforcement later found mail addressed to multiple fictitious identities and notes instructing postal carriers to deliver items for those names to the same apartment.

Authorities said the fraudulently obtained SNAP funds were withdrawn from ATMs, used for purchases, or trafficked to others. Customers were allegedly charged between 50 and 60 percent of a card’s monthly balance in exchange for temporary access to the EBT cards, which were returned after an agreed portion of the benefits had been spent.

As part of her sentence, Latasha Thomas was ordered to pay $325,159 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP at the federal level. Cynthia Thomas was convicted last year and sentenced to three years of probation. Ambrosia Thomas has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud and is awaiting sentencing.

SNAP is a federally funded program designed to help low-income individuals and families afford food, with benefits issued monthly through EBT cards that can be used at authorized retailers. The program has faced increased scrutiny in recent years following multiple large-scale fraud investigations and federal findings that benefits were improperly issued in hundreds of thousands of cases, including to dead people. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has sought expanded access to state data to detect ineligible recipients, with Democrat state officials resisting.

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