Tammy Young, Food Program Fraud, Tennessee 2017

Knoxville Woman Pleads Guilty in Food Program Scam

A 47-year-old Knoxville woman has admitted to her role in a massive food program scam that netted over $1.5 million, according to court documents.

Tammy Young, 47, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for her role with All About Giving, Inc., a sponsor organization in the United States Department of Agriculture’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

The Child and Adult Care Food Program is intended to reimburse child care providers for meals served to low-income children and other qualifying individuals. However, Young and her co-conspirators allegedly defrauded the program out of over $1.5 million between March 2015 and July 2016.

According to court documents, Young’s cousin and co-conspirator, LaShane Hayes, started All About Giving, Inc. in 2014. Young and other co-conspirators participated in the fraud by falsifying documents to support the fraudulent reimbursement requests, including provider records and provider lists.

Young also enrolled individuals in the Knoxville area as All About Giving childcare providers who she knew were not providing childcare or serving meals to children. She traveled from Knoxville to Nashville on numerous occasions to pick up checks from All About Giving and distribute them to alleged providers in and around Knoxville.

Young faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger on August 30, 2017.

LaShane Hayes, Young’s cousin and co-conspirator, pleaded guilty in January 2017 to conspiracy and wire fraud and was sentenced to three months in prison and three years of supervised release.