State social workers indicted in food benefit scam

Seven former state workers have been indicted after officials say they stole nearly $1 million from a federal food service program.

The employees worked for the Department of Health and Social Services as Division of Social Services case workers responsible for issuing Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, said Carl Kanefsky, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.

The workers created fictitious and unauthorized EBT accounts with varying amounts of food benefits on the card. EBT cards work similar to debit cards; money is placed on the card to help people who qualify pay for groceries. EBT cards are part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program which is federally funded, said Jill Fredel, director of communications for DHSS.

Fraud was first suspected in 2014 when a Division of Social Services supervisor could not find required documentation to support a benefits case, Fredel said. Investigators with DHSS's Audit and Recovery Management Services immediately began an investigation working with the USDA, which administers the SNAP program, she said.

Investigators discovered social workers would issue cards to state service centers in New Castle and Kent County where they worked, and where they would intercept the cards. Employees would then use the cards or sell them, Kanefsky said.

A month-long investigation by the Department of Justice's Criminal Division, Fraud Division, Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust and DHSS Audit and Recovery Management Services determined the employees took more than $959,000 in fraudulent benefits, Kanefsky said.

Fredel said the employees involved were terminated in 2015.

“This case is part of an intensified focus our office is trying to bring to fraud being committed against the state’s public benefit programs,” said Attorney General Matt Denn in a prepared statement.

Two defendants were indicted and arrested the week of June 6, two others were indicted and remain at large, one was indicted and arrested previously and still faces charges, and two have already been convicted and sentenced, Kanefsky said.

In April, Allison Rivera, 49, of Dover, and Angelette Brown, 45, of Camden, pleaded guilty to theft over $1,500 and unlawful use of a payment card. Rivera was also charged with falsifying business records; Brown with official misconduct.

Rivera was sentenced to two years level II probation and ordered to pay $27,751 in restitution; Brown was sentenced to two years level II probation, ordered to do 240 hours of community service and repay $15,957.

Charged in June were Detrich Simmons-Heath, 54, of Chesterown, Md., and Kamilah Laws, 39, of Wilmington. Simmons-Heath was charged with theft over $100,000, first-degree forgery, falsifying business records and official misconduct. He was released on $6,000 unsecured bond. Laws was charged with theft over $50,000, first-degree forgery, falsifying business records and official misconduct. She was released on $5,000 unsecured bond.

Kanefsky said charges are pending for Nicole Stevens, 43, of Dover, who was arrested in November 2015.

Indicted but still at-large are Jo Ellen Edwards, 61, of Felton, and Shirlene Davis, 29, of Newark.

“I find it especially cruel and disheartening that anyone would steal from a supplemental food benefit for personal gain and greed,” DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf said in a press release. “We have continued to be in close contact with our federal partners and will keep working with them to strengthen the internal controls that will make it more difficult for these crimes to occur, while ensuring that red flags are raised as immediately as possible when they do.”