Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia says investigators in his Office have arrested a man suspected of bilking nearly $3 million from public assistance programs earmarked for Florida families.
Abbas Rehman is suspected of running a scheme where he was able to pilfer more than $2.88 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). That’s the program designed to provide assistance to financially disadvantaged Americans who need food assistance.
Ingoglia said officials with his Department of Financial Services Criminal Investigations Division (CID) arrested Rehman after he was suspected of using multiple fake identifications to apply for and get funding from SNAP.
“SNAP benefits are intended to help vulnerable Floridians when they need it most, not to be exploited for profits by criminals,” Ingoglia said in a news release Wednesday.
“This criminal tried to steal from the hardworking families who rely on these benefits to put food on the table, but he quickly found out that Florida is not Minnesota and we do not let these crimes go without consequence. My office will continue to protect taxpayer funds and hold criminals who try to cheat the system accountable.”
Rehman was arrested April 30 on multiple charges of grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and criminal use of personal identification information.
CID Bureau of Public Assistance Fraud investigators allege Rehman submitted fraudulent merchant applications and manipulated bank deposit information. He is accused of using stolen business identities of four different USDA retailers authorized for SNAP distributions.
Ingoglia’s Office has stepped up criminal investigations in the past year. His Office just arrested Francisco Javier Chaparro-Araus in April for allegedly misappropriating insurance settlements for 13 victims in Broward County in the wake of Hurricane Ian, which hit the state in 2022. The alleged scheme amounted to the loss of $700,000 among the victims.
CID investigators also arrested half a dozen state employees in February on charges they were part of a scheme to file bogus property damage claims through Florida’s Division of Risk Management. The fraudulent claims amounted to about $1.7 million.
