Nottingham Man Admits to $3.5M in Food Stamp and Wire Fraud

A Nottingham pleaded guilty to food stamp and wire fraud in federal court Friday, admitting that he and his relatives accepted more than $3.5 million from sales that never occurred or were inflated.

Muhammad Sarmad, 40, provided food stamp participants with cash in exchange for a fee, usually up to the same amount of cash that was being doled out to the recipient. Retailers are not authorized to provide cash for the cards; it is a violation of the program, known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

The following stores were involved in the scheme from 2010 to 2016, according to the plea agreement:

Sarmad admitted to trading cash for food stamp money at the Rosedale Mart, Martin Mart and M&A Mart between 2015 and 2016, according to the plea agreement.

Investigators determined that if family members feared their stores would no longer be allowed to participate in the food stamp program, they opened other businesses under different names.

He faces a maximum of five years in jail. Sentencing is set for March 20, 2017.