Pat Lu: Welfare Fraud Ringleader Skimming $30K Per Month


The Daily Caller reports 48-year-old Pat Lu of Massachusetts was involved in personally skimming $30,000 from the federal government’s food stamp debit card system each month.

Lu pleaded not guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges after police raided his Quincy, Mass. mini-mart and accused him of his alleged involvement in a complex welfare fraud scheme which involved at least 53 suspects. NECN-TV reports that Lu was the ringleader of the elaborate scam which netted $700,000 in less than two years.

Police have indicated that customers would come into Pat’s mini-mart, named Pat Mini Mart, with debit cards provided by the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program, swipe their cards, a phony sale would be rung up, and the customer would receive $0.50 on the dollar, in cash. Lu would pocket the remainder.

Ed Davis, the Boston Police Commissioner, said that there were 31 arrests in Boston, M.A., on Thursday in relation to the welfare fraud scheme allegedly run by Mr. Lu. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley was quoted by the Patriot-Ledger having said:

“The was on the street, so to speak, [was] that you could come to this store [Pat Lu’s mini-mart] and cash in an EBT card.”

Recipients of welfare have the ability to receive their “food stamps” in the form of a debit card, simply by enrolling in the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) program. In other words, EBT is a form of food stamps and the scam entails welfare beneficiaries trading in their food stamps, or EBT cards, for cash which they can then use to buy tobacco, alcohol, and lottery tickets, which are otherwise prohibited from purchase in the state. The state commission recommended back in March that welfare debit cards be banned from being used at strip clubs, casinos, tattoo parlors, and nail salons.

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