The owner of a Chicago grocery store has been sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison for fraudulently redeeming millions of dollars in benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
Yousef Abu Alhawa owned a grocery store in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on Chicago’s Southwest Side. From 2011 to 2019, Alhawa fraudulently redeemed or caused to redeem SNAP and WIC benefits for non-eligible items or cash, and redeemed SNAP and WIC benefits on behalf of stores ineligible to participate in SNAP and WIC. Alhawa admitted in a plea agreement with the government that he caused a loss to those programs of more than $8.3 million.
Alhawa, 50, of Lockport, Ill., pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and tax charges. The tax offenses pertained to Alhawa’s filing of false income tax returns for the calendar years 2015 to 2017. The tax offenses caused a federal and state tax loss of more than $610,000.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger imposed the 42-month prison sentence and ordered Alhawa to pay $8.9 million in restitution to the U.S. Treasury, IRS, and State of Illinois.
About 1.9 million Illinois residents rely on the SNAP program to eat. But criminals target the program because it uses outdated technology. Since 2023, Illinois has approved nearly 40,000 claims for stolen SNAP benefits totaling over $20 million.
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The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Ramsey E. Covington, Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago, and Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General also helped.
“Defendant’s offense conduct was serious,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Mower argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “SNAP is the nation’s largest federally funded nutrition assistance program. His actions not only deprived those programs of vital financial resources that could otherwise have been made available to deserving recipients, but also risked sowing general disfavor and distrust of government benefit systems.”
In May, the Department of Justice charged six people in New York for stealing over $66 million in food stamps from SNAP.
Illinous has reported the fourth-highest amount of SNAP fraud to the federal government, according to a dashboard that tracks reported fraud from 2023-2025.
- New York: 151,738
- California: 85,978
- Texas: 57,187
- Illinois: 41,565
USDA Secretary Brook Rollins posted on social media in May.
"Let me be clear.If you are abusing the system and committing SNAP fraud – just know that we will find you. We will arrest you. We will convict you.No warnings. No second chances."
Let me be clear.
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) May 2, 2025
If you are abusing the system and committing SNAP fraud – just know that we will find you.
We will arrest you.
We will convict you.
No warnings. No second chances. pic.twitter.com/JKBaOk4hf3
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