Owner of Chicago-Area Convenience Stores Sentenced to Four Years in Federal Prison for Defrauding Low-Income Food Program

CHICAGO — A federal judge has sentenced the owner of several Chicago-area convenience stores to four years in prison for scheming to defraud a low-income food program for women and children.

From 2010 to 2018, Hassan Abdellatif schemed with eight other convenience store owners or workers in the Chicago area to fraudulently redeem checks from the Women, Infants, and Children (“WIC”) program, a federally funded initiative designed to provide a nutritious diet to low-income children and pregnant, breastfeeding, and post-partum women.

Abdellatif and the others knowingly allowed customers to provide their WIC checks as payment for ineligible items at the stores, often at inflated prices.

In all, ten stores involved in the scheme redeemed more than $19 million in WIC checks.

A federal jury last year convicted Abdellatif, 37, of Chicago, on all five counts against him, including two counts of wire fraud, one count of fraudulently obtaining government benefits, and two counts of willfully failing to file corporate tax returns.

In addition to the four-year prison term, U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso on Tuesday ordered Abdellatif to pay more than $8.8 million in restitution to the government.

Eight others were charged in federal court as part of this investigation. All eight have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, Shantel R. Robinson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Midwest Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, and Adam Jobes, Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kartik K. Raman and Rick Young.

“Hassan Abdellatif and his co-schemers engaged in conduct that was extremely serious, complex, and wide-ranging in scope,” AUSA Raman argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Vulnerable communities are impacted when individuals steal from those programs.”

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