$66 MILLION STOLEN FROM WELFARE SNAP
ARLASA DAVIS IS ANOTHER DEI HIRE THAT COULDN'T RESIST HELPING HERSELF TO TAXPAYER FUNDS.
BY SNN.BZ STAFF
MICHAEL KEHOE, МОНАМAD NAWAFLEH, OMAR ALRAWASHDEH, GAMAL OBAID, EMAD ALRAWASHDEH, and ARLASA DAVIS were charged in a federal criminal case involving one of the largest Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly known as food stamps) fraud schemes in U.S. history.
The scheme allegedly defrauded the program of over $66 million through unauthorized Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) transactions, fraudulent USDA applications, and bribery.
This occurred primarily in the New York area starting in 2019.The charging document is a Superseding Indictment (not a criminal complaint, which is typically used for initial arrests without grand jury involvement).
It was unsealed on May 29, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. not publicly detailed in available sources, but assigned to U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff). The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury and alleges a conspiracy that undermined SNAP, a program providing food assistance to low-income households using federal funds.
- Scheme Overview: The defendants allegedly created a network to supply ~160 unauthorized EBT terminals to ineligible stores (e.g., smoke shops) across New York, processing >$30 million in illegal transactions. They submitted ~200 fraudulent USDA applications, misusing license numbers and altering documents to obtain terminals. Arlasa Davis, a USDA employee in the SNAP fraud detection division, allegedly sold hundreds of confidential EBT license numbers (enabling another $36 million in fraud) via an intermediary, receiving bribes disguised as “birthday gifts” or “flowers.” She photographed license lists on her personal phone to facilitate this.
- Impact: This is described as “one of the largest food stamp frauds in U.S. history,” betraying public trust and diverting funds meant for vulnerable families.
- Status: All defendants were arrested. Mohamad Nawafleh allegedly fled to Jordan after disabling his monitoring device and faces an additional failure-to-appear charge. If convicted, penalties could total up to 35 years per defendant (up to 75 years for Davis due to extra counts).
The full indictment text is not publicly available online but SNN.BZ has made it part and parcel of this article.
Perry Carbone, Attorney for the United States, Acting under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515, along with Charmeka Parker, Special Agent in Charge of the USDA Office of Inspector General, and Christopher G. Raia, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, announced the unsealing of a Superseding Indictment.
The indictment charges six individuals in connection with a sprawling fraud and bribery scheme. This scheme generated over $66 million in unauthorized transactions under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.
This is one of the largest food stamp frauds in U.S. history. The defendants—MICHAEL KEHOE, MOHAMAD NAWAFLEH, OMAR ALRAWASHDEH, GAMAL OBAID, EMAD ALRAWASHDEH, and ARLASA DAVIS—are charged with conspiracy to steal government funds and to misappropriate U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) benefits, among other charges. DAVIS, a USDA employee, is additionally charged with bribery and honest services fraud.
“Michael Kehoe and his co-conspirators misappropriated tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds meant to help low-income families put food on the table,” said U.S. Attorney Perry Carbone. “This fraud was made possible when USDA employee Arlasa Davis betrayed the public trust by selling confidential government information to the very criminals she was supposed to catch.
Their actions undermined a program that vulnerable New Yorkers depend on for basic nutrition. These charges should be a reminder that those who exploit anti-poverty programs for personal gain will be held accountable for their crimes.” According to the Indictment, statements made in public court proceedings and filings, and the evidence at trial:
And Arlasa Davis was instrumental in getting those EBT machines into hair salons, nail salons, men’s barber shops, clothing shops, grocery stores and smoke shops.
[1] The SNAP program uses federal tax dollars to help low-income households purchase food. SNAP recipients use Electronic Benefit Transfer (“EBT”) cards—similar to debit cards—to buy food at participating stores. It’s no coincidence that she herself partook of all the things SNAP wasn’t meant for such as her weaves, her extremely long ghetto nails, etc.
Those stores, which get license numbers from the USDA, use special EBT terminals to swipe the EBT cards. When a SNAP recipient swipes their EBT card, the system verifies the transaction and electronically deducts the purchase amount from the recipient’s account. The corresponding federal funds are then transferred to the store’s bank account.
[2] Starting in 2019, KEHOE orchestrated a network that supplied approximately 160 unauthorized EBT terminals to stores across the New York area to illegally process more than $30 million in EBT transactions.
Working with his codefendants NAWAFLEH, OMAR ALRAWASHDEH, OBAID, and EMAD ALRAWASHDEH, KEHOE submitted approximately 200 fraudulent USDA applications, misappropriating USDA license numbers and, in some cases, doctoring application documents, to obtain EBT terminals for unauthorized stores—including smoke shops and other ineligible businesses.
[3] Critical to the scheme was ARLASA DAVIS, a longtime USDA employee who worked within the very division of the USDA responsible for identifying SNAP fraud. DAVIS abused her privileged access to federal systems to sell hundreds of EBT license numbers enabling over $36 million in fraudulent SNAP redemptions at unauthorized stores.
[4] DAVIS photographed handwritten lists of license numbers intended for qualifying stores with her personal cellphone and funneled them to an intermediary who sold them to co-conspirators, including NAWAFLEH, OMAR ALRAWASHDEH, EMAD ALRAWASHDEH, and OBAID, who then used those license numbers to fraudulently obtain EBT terminals for stores that were not authorized by the USDA to process SNAP transactions. In return, DAVIS received substantial bribes that were disguised in communications as, among other things, “birthday gifts” and “flowers.”
[5] Some of the defendants owned or controlled some of the retail stores, allowing them to receive a portion of the transactions. In other stores, the defendants extracted commissions and cash payments from the stores that housed the EBT terminals.
KEHOE, 46, of Long Island, New York; NAWAFLEH, 34, of the Bronx, New York; OMAR ALRAWASHDEH, 37, of the Bronx, New York; OBAID, 39, of the Bronx, New York; EMAD ALRAWASHDEH, 37, of the Bronx, New York; and DAVIS, 56, of Gardiner, New York, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to steal government funds and misappropriate USDA benefits, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one count of theft of government funds, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and one count of misappropriation of USDA benefits, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
DAVIS is additionally charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one count of bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
