Cops: St. Pete Man Ran Fraud Ring

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The operator of St. Petersburg’s King Food Mart faces a host of criminal charges after police announced the results of a 15-month investigation into alleged illegal activities.

According to the St. Petersburg Police Department, the agency, along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and USDA, began looking into the actions of Wail Mari in October 2014. A store manager, police wrote in an email to media, told police about suspicious EBT card use.

“We discovered Wail Mari was paying up to 50 cents on the dollar for EBT (public assistance) cards,” the email said. “He would then use those cards to buy goods at warehouse stores to stock up King Food Mart. He also sold those goods at a discounted price to five other convenience/gas stations in Tampa, Dunedin, Seminole and St. Petersburg.”

Police also accuse the man of cashing out whatever dollars were left on the ill-gotten cards at a BP gas station on 4th Street North.

Police have linked the operator of the 1421 22nd St. S. store to 430 different EBT cards since October 2014. They say he bought cards from undercover officers. Police confiscated $169,000 in cash while serving search warrants on Monday and say the estimated loss over the 12 years he’s been in operation is $1.62 million.

Warrants have been issued for the arrests of some of those involved in selling EBT cards, as well. Fourteen other people have already been charged.

Mari now faces public assistance fraud, scheme to defraud and trafficking in credit card charges. Mari was being held in the Pinellas County Jail Tuesday in lieu of $500,000 bond.

Booking photo courtesy of the St. Petersburg Police Department