A US Based Ghanaian Woman-Vida Ofori Causey Pleads Guilty to $3.6 Million Fraud | You Won’t Believe What She Did

Trust certain Ghanaians to take their ‘shenaniganism’ to the backyards of whoever opens his country for them and while at it, they are sure to make global headlines with their ‘get rich schemes.’

A Ghanaian based in Worcester, USA has pleaded guilty to $3.6 million fraud after she was busted for screwing the United States food stamp benefit system, which is to help support people of low income.

Vida Ofori Causey, 45, pleaded guilty to “federal court charges in connection to the theft of $3.6 million in food stamp benefits after she allegedly created numerous bank accounts and bought benefits from eligible people for less than full value,” reports Masslive.Com.

On Monday, Vida pleaded guilty to “one count of conspiracy to commit SNAP benefits fraud, one count of SNAP fraud and one count of money laundering in U.S. District Court” the website states.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts said Vida Causey committed the fraud over four years—and this is how she reportedly did it:

Vida who owns a J&W Aseda Plaza, a convenience store on Main Street in the city bought Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) funds from people, paying 50 cents for a SNAP worth a dollar and then later have the USDA electronically deposit the full money into bank accounts she owned.

So she is cunningly doubling her investments in less than a minute—paying 50 cents for 1 dollar worth of SNAP and then asking the government for 1 dollar to be paid into her bank account.

Perhaps, you may be asking at this stage, what’s the big deal? The owners sold the SNAPs to her and she paid a good consideration for it, so what’s the fraud here?

The SNAP program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was formerly called the food stamp program and this is for low- and no-income people living in the U.S. It is a federal aid program to support the poor—and receivers of SNAP cannot sell, trade or give away their stamp benefits.

Since SNAP money allows people to buy food at authorized vendors, Vida Causey would instead buy the SNAP dollars at a cheaper price and then request the full payment from the USDA—the money would be electronically deposited into many of her bank accounts .

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office said she defrauded the USDA out of $3,638,900 in SNAP funds.

What did she do with all the cash? Perhaps, build mansions she does not even live in, in Ghana—that’s what most of these people living abroad do.