Atlanta meat market owner pleads guilty to $10 million food stamp fraud

ATLANTA – Uttam Halder has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud arising from a $10 million scheme to purchase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from low-income recipients. After his arrest, Halder became a fugitive and attempted to flee to Istanbul, where he was apprehended by foreign authorities.

“The defendant exploited a program designed to provide nutritional assistance for needy citizens by enabling stores to pay cash to customers to redeem their food stamp benefits,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan.  “His actions diverted millions of dollars in taxpayer funds for his personal gain.  He also tried to evade the consequences of his actions by escaping abroad but was captured and arrested with the assistance of our international law enforcement partners.”

“This investigation and prosecution should send a strong zero-tolerance message to those individuals engaged in the practice of defrauding the taxpayer through SNAP,” said Miles Davis, Special Agent-in-Charge, USDA-Office of Inspector General. “It should also serve as a warning to all stores that participate in the SNAP program as vendors that fraud and trafficking (purchasing those benefits for cash and the sharing of  Point-of-Sale terminals) will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted by the USDA-OIG, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and all its federal, state, and local partners that have a stake in ensuring that fraud is eliminated from taxpayer-funded programs.”

“Halder thought that his scheme to defraud the government and his attempt to evade prosecution would be successful, but thanks to HSI and its law enforcement partners, both here and abroad, he was sadly mistaken,” said HSI Atlanta acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama. “Crime does not pay is the lesson we want others, contemplating scams, to take from this case and change their minds.”

According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in court: Uttam Halder owned and operated a small meat market in Atlanta called Big Daddy’s Discount Meat (“Big Daddy’s”). Halder enrolled Big Daddy’s as a retailer for the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) in 2014. SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is designed to alleviate hunger among low-income families by providing benefits on Electronic Benefit Transfer (“EBT”) cards that can be exchanged for eligible food items.

Between 2015 and 2020, Halder loaned his EBT terminals to two stores, Food World and Big Brother Mini Supermarket, contrary to SNAP rules. Co-conspirator Paltu Roy, the operator of Big Brother Mini Supermarket, and another co-conspirator who operated Food World agreed to share profits with Halder from Big Daddy’s terminals used illegally at those stores. After receiving Big Daddy’s EBT terminals, both stores made cash payments to customers in return for redeeming their SNAP benefits at the rate of roughly 50 cents on the dollar. During this six-year period, Big Daddy’s terminals collected more than $10 million in fraudulent redemptions of SNAP benefits, and Halder shared a substantial portion of the profits.

Following his arrest in January 2021, Halder was released on bond. Contrary to his bond conditions, Halder fled and became a fugitive in late 2022. In June 2023, foreign authorities in Turkey located Halder when he attempted to enter Istanbul from Cancun, Mexico with a fake passport. Halder was returned to the United States and placed into custody.

Uttam Halder, 42, of Decatur, Georgia, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of failure to appear. The sentencing is scheduled for January 30, 2024, before U.S. District Court Judge Michael L. Brown.

His co-conspirator, Paltu Roy, 51, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on December 9, 2021. Judge Brown sentenced Roy on April 20, 2022, to three years and one month in prison, three years of supervised release, and a special assessment of $100 and ordered him to pay $3,071,235 in restitution to the USDA.

This case is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan P. Kitchens is prosecuting the case.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.