NEW YORK CITY - An elaborate fraud ring that allegedly siphoned more than $7 million in food assistance from vulnerable New Yorkers has been dismantled, with eight people facing several charges.
What we know:
Officials announced the indictments last month, detailing a massive EBT skimming operation that spanned from April 2023 to September 2025 and victimized thousands of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients.
When families attempted to buy groceries on the very day their monthly benefits were loaded, they discovered their accounts had already been drained to zero. Many of these victims have never been reimbursed.
How the scheme worked
Timeline:
According to court documents, the operation was highly organized and sophisticated. The defendants allegedly used card skimmers to steal EBT account numbers and personal identification numbers (PINs) from unsuspecting users. Armed with this stolen data, they created cloned EBT cards.
To cash out the food benefits, the group set up fraudulent merchant processing accounts and acquired point-of-sale (POS) systems under the guise of real and fictitious delis, bodegas, and grocery stores.
DOJ: Two illegal alien brothers from Romania plead guilty to multi-state stolen SNAP benefit scheme
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says two Romanian brothers who are illegally in the United States pleaded guilty Thursday to orchestrating a fraud scheme involving Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP) benefits in several states.
The fraudsters closely tracked the exact timing of when the state would deposit SNAP funds into the compromised accounts. The moment the funds dropped, officials say the defendants would repeatedly swipe the cloned cards through their own rigged POS machines until the victims' accounts were completely empty. The money was then routed to bank accounts controlled by the conspirators.
Inside the 'fraud factory’
Dig deeper:
Photographic evidence seized by law enforcement via a court-authorized warrant revealed what investigators described as a "fraud factory." Operations were allegedly run out of hotel rooms and the back room of a Yonkers deli. Images showed multiple POS systems, long strings of transaction receipts, and dozens of cloned EBT cards.
Prosecutors identified 34-year-old Belal Hauter as the alleged ringleader. Hauter is accused of directing co-conspirators to open the various merchant and bank accounts used to launder the stolen benefits.
Other key figures named in the indictment include:
- Gregory Fabiani (46) and Abdulla Aezah (35), who allegedly provided the back-end technical support to operate the POS machines and manage the fraudulent accounts.
- Milton Rios (53) and Yvette Rivera (58), who are accused of opening additional merchant and bank accounts to facilitate the conspiracy.
Once the public funds were stolen, the group allegedly used the cash to purchase luxury vehicles and wired tens of thousands of dollars internationally, including to Yemen.
What they're saying:
"These alleged crimes not only resulted in the pilfering of public funds from a critical City-administered food program, but also left vulnerable New Yorkers without essential benefits to purchase groceries," said DOI Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata.
The Source: Information from this article was provided by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.