Chicago-area convenience store owner sentenced in WIC fraud scheme

CHICAGO - A convenience store owner has learned his fate after being found guilty in a long-running scheme to defraud a food assistance program for low-income women and children.

What we know:

Hassan Abdellatif, 37, of Chicago, was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.

Prosecutors said that from 2010 to 2018, Abdellatif worked with eight other convenience store owners or employees in the Chicago area to fraudulently redeem WIC checks.

The "Women, Infants, and Children" program is federally funded and designed to provide nutritious food to low-income children and pregnant, breastfeeding and post-partum women.

According to prosecutors, Abdellatif and others allowed customers to use WIC checks to pay for items that were not eligible under the program. In many cases, those items were sold at inflated prices.

In total, 10 stores involved in the scheme redeemed more than $19 million in WIC checks, prosecutors said.

A federal jury last year convicted Abdellatif on all five counts against him, including two counts of wire fraud, one count of fraudulently obtaining government benefits and two counts of willfully failing to file corporate tax returns.

In addition to prison time, a judge ordered Abdellatif to pay more than $8.8 million in restitution to the government.

What they're saying:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kartik Raman described the conduct as "extremely serious, complex, and wide-ranging in scope."

"Vulnerable communities are impacted when individuals steal from those programs," Raman wrote to the judge before sentencing.

What's next:

Eight other people were charged as part of the investigation. All have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.