Pittsburgh 7-Eleven manager and employee charged with $550,000 SNAP fraud scheme

A Pittsburgh convenience store manager and employee have been charged with illegally exchanging more than $550,000 worth of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for cash.

Abdou Jallow, 55, and Alicia Mastrantoni, 39, both of Pittsburgh, were charged in connection with a nationwide fraud crackdown, the United States Attorney's Office announced on Tuesday. 

Prosecutors said Jallow, the manager of the 7-Eleven at 643 Liberty Avenue, and Mastrantoni, an employee at the same store, exchanged SNAP benefits for cash for customers, some of whom used the money to buy drugs. 

Investigators said they zeroed in on the store because its SNAP benefit transactions were "significantly high in both volume and dollar amount." 

It's believed that Jallow and Mastrantoni fraudulently exchanged over $550,000 worth of SNAP benefits during the course of the investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. To hide the exchanges, the pair used fake universal product codes on the store's cash register, authorities said. 

"Exploiting a vital nutrition program for personal profit and to fuel drug abuse is a betrayal of the communities these benefits are intended to support," Nathan Able, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations' Philadelphia office, said in a press release. 

The charges are part of a nationwide push to crack down on health care fraud. The Department of Justice said the coordinated law enforcement action resulted in charges against 455 people, including doctors and other licensed medical professionals, and totaled over $6.5 billion in false claims.