Eight charged in $7 million SNAP theft that drained New Yorkers' EBT cards through fake delis

Eight people have been indicted on charges that they stole more than $7 million in SNAP food benefits from thousands of New Yorkers by cloning skimmed EBT cards and swiping them on payment terminals registered to real and made-up delis, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and city Department of Investigation Commissioner Nadia Shihata announced Thursday.

The alleged theft ran from April 2023 to September 2025. Many of the victims never got the stolen benefits back, according to the DA's office. The defendants face charges in state Supreme Court in Manhattan including conspiracy in the fourth degree, grand larceny and identity theft.

How prosecutors say it worked

• The group used the names of existing or fictitious delis, bodegas and grocery stores to open merchant processing accounts and get point-of-sale machines that accept EBT cards, the DA said.
• They used stolen EBT card numbers and PINs, mostly captured by card skimmers, to make cloned cards.
• They tracked when benefits would be deposited and swiped the cards almost immediately, often until the balance was gone. In several cases, recipients who tried to shop the same day found their accounts already empty, prosecutors said.

Photos gathered in the case showed what the DA's office called essentially a "fraud factory" in the back room of a Yonkers deli and in hotels, with numerous card machines, strings of receipts and dozens of cloned cards. Prosecutors say the money paid for luxury vehicles and that tens of thousands of dollars were sent to Yemen and other countries.

Prosecutors describe a 34-year-old man as the ringleader. He and two other defendants were arraigned Thursday and pleaded not guilty, ABC7 reported. His lawyer told the station that whether he led the scheme "remains to be seen." An indictment is only an accusation, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Chip cards are coming

Shihata said DOI issued a public report on this kind of fraud in 2025 and supports the move to more secure chip-enabled EBT cards, which she said New York State will roll out in the first quarter of 2027.

Protecting your EBT card now

Until chip cards arrive, ABC7 reported that experts advise cardholders to:

• Check whether a card reader looks loose or tampered with before swiping.
• Change your EBT PIN every month.
• Remember that state agencies will never call or text to ask for your PIN.

SNAP households are already under pressure: federal work rules have cut off thousands of New Yorkers this fall. Here's who can reapply and how.