Remark Chism pleaded guilty in Federal Court at Memphis Wednesday to stealing nearly $2.9 million from the U.S. government through an organized, two-year scheme of food stamp and day care subsidy fraud, reports the Commercial Appeal.
As part owner of Maxi Foods, Chism and two others were accused of seeking out people with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits, paying them a reduced cash price for the value of their benefits and then redeeming them for government compensation in the full amount.
…Federal prosecutors allege Chism, with the help of Angelica Austin and Erica Pitchford, managed to skim more than $1.9 million from the SNAP program between 2011 and 2013.
Chism’s indictment also alleges that the KARE III Enrichment Center, a daycare he owned and operated at 3750 Ridgeway, received more than $986,000 in government subsidies for providing day care to at least 18 children that never attended its programs.
About 85 percent of kids at KARE were enrolled with government funding, Chism told the judge.
“Some of those kids didn’t come. I would give the parents a share of the funding and they’d keep their child at home.”
Chism and his codefendants arranged to pay cash to parents for less than the face value of their benefits through the Child Care Certificate Program, which seeks to help unemployed or low-wage earning parents offset the cost of child care. Then they would collect the full value of the subsidies from the government.
In addition to recruiting parents who already qualified for the program, Chism would help get parents admitted to the program by claiming they worked at one of his or his relatives’ businesses. Then Chism would submit falsified documents showing their children were enrolled at KARE.