Ali Mugalli Hassan, Food Stamp Fraud, California 2022

Oakland, California – In a shocking turn of events, Ali Mugalli Hassan, a 32-year-old convenience store owner from Alameda, California, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for his role in multiple schemes to defraud government benefits programs.

According to the United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General (USDA-OIG) Western Region Special Agent in Charge Shawn Dionida, Hassan was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit benefits fraud and to defraud the United States, one count of benefits fraud greater than $5,000, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and one count of wire fraud.

The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton following a week-long jury trial. The trial evidence showed that Hassan owned and operated a convenience store on International Boulevard in Oakland, which was an authorized vendor for the USDA’s Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). Hassan and his family members, including his father Mugalli Ahmed Hassan, conducted fraudulent SNAP transactions through the store by charging purchases on customers’ EBT cards when, in reality, the customers received few or no SNAP-eligible products.

As part of the scheme, Hassan kept approximately half the value of the fraudulent transactions and returned the remainder in cash to the customers. At sentencing, Judge Hamilton found the loss amount from the conspiracy to be over $1 million.

In addition to the prison term, Chief Judge Hamilton ordered Ali Hassan to serve three years of supervised release, to begin after his release from prison, and to pay a fine of $15,000.

The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the USDA-OIG with the assistance of the Oakland Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Abraham Fine and Molly Priedeman.

Mugalli Hassan, Ali’s father, pleaded guilty to nine counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 and proceeded to trial along with Ali Hassan on several of the remaining counts pending against them. On June 29, 2022, a jury convicted both Ali Hassan and Mugalli Hassan of the above-mentioned crimes.

Ali Mugalli Hassan, 32, of Alameda, defrauded the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) by unlawfully trafficking federal food stamp benefits from 2014 through 2017.

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