Nassau Parents Lie To Get SNAP Benefits, Change School District: DA

MINEOLA, NY— A Levittown woman been charged with fraud after prosecutors said she submitted bogus paperwork to claim over $112,000 in public assistance benefits, and lied on other documents to register their child in the North Shore School District.

Terry Ann Powell-Bajwa, 45, pleaded not guilty to charges of grand larceny, welfare fraud, and offering false instruments for filing. Her husband, Khurram Bajwa, was also charged with submitting phony documents claiming that he and their child lived in the North Shore School District to enroll their child in kindergarten, when they actually lived in Levittown. He also pleaded not guilty.

The couple misrepresented their wealth and family dynamic to receive public assistance benefits earmarked for vulnerable residents, prosecutors said. Powell-Bajwa and Bajwa are both scheduled to appear in court April 13. If convicted, Powell-Bajwa could face up to 15 years in prison, and Bajwa could face up to four years in prison.

Between 2017 and 2021, Powell-Bajwa lied on applications and recertifications that she filed with the Nassau County Department of Social Services and the state's Health Benefits Exchange, the Nassau County district attorney's office said. She listed herself as single with two dependent children and earning a yearly income of $23,600, prosecutors said. She also listed the father as absent from the household, and her monthly income as $1,750, and said she owed a monthly mortgage payment of $2,650 that was in arrears, the district attorney's office said.

Powell-Bajwa’s husband lived with the family in their Levittown home and worked as a manager at Capgemini America in the company’s financial services business unit in New York City. Between October 2016 and February 2020, Bajwa earned about $266,000, prosecutors said.

Furthermore, Powell-Bajwa failed to report rental income for a two-family home that Bajwa owned and rented in Howard Beach, Queens, the district attorney's office said. As a result, Powell-Bajwa and her family received about $112,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, day care services, and medicaid benefits to which they were not entitled.

Powell-Bajwa also failed to report that she was president and CEO of Tera Consulting, a consulting, IT service solutions, and commodity distribution company, and held an executive position in a home improvement business that she and her husband owned. Each company had corporate bank accounts, and money from those accounts were used to pay expenses such as their mortgage, utilities, and personal expenses.

TCI has had an active government contract vendor license with the U.S. General Services Administration since August 2018. The U.S. government has contracted TCI to supply televisions, toilet paper, and paper towels to federal prisons through the Justice Department, long range thermal detectors to U.S. Customs and Borders, cabinets and white boards to the Army, and toilet paper to the National Park Service, Cape Cod National Seashore. TCI also provided IT and computer products through a government contract with Lockheed Martin between February 2021 through December 2021, in which Lockheed Martin paid TCI more than $2 million.

Khurram Bajwa also lied on paperwork to register his daughter for kindergarten in the North Shore School District where his brother lives with his family and swore on that documentation that he and his daughter lived in the school district, prosecutors said.

Bajwa and Powell-Bajwa permanently lived in Levittown with their daughter, and their daughter would not have been allowed to enroll in the district. The district spent about $50,000 on the child’s education, prosecutors said.

The couple surrendered to prosecutors Thursday.