Manjit Bedi pleaded not guilty in a Tacoma federal courtroom on April 22. A week later, prosecutors say, he left the country for India. On the night of October 14 he was back in Washington State in the custody of federal agents, with food stamp fraud and wire fraud charges waiting for him.
Bedi, 64, of Kent, owned a small grocery in Tacoma. Prosecutors allege he took at least $600,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, the federal program better known as food stamps, between March 2024 and June 2025. He is originally from India, and the FBI lists him as Manjit Singh Bedi. The charges came by indictment, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Cash at 50 cents on the dollar
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington laid out the allegations in an October 15 release. The indictment says Bedi paid SNAP recipients cash for the value on their EBT cards at half price. In the example prosecutors give, a $200 charge to a card put $100 in a recipient’s hand and left the other $100 with the store.
Prosecutors say the benefits were taken for food items that were never sold. The store was authorized to accept SNAP in February 2024, and the alleged scheme began the next month. The release does not name the store.
The USDA Office of Inspector General, the FBI and Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Victoria Cantore is prosecuting the case.
For people who rely on SNAP, the case is narrower than it may sound. The charges name a store owner, and the government says the money came out of benefits meant for low-income households. Anyone who is offered cash for the balance on an EBT card should know that the exchange is illegal for the cardholder as well as the store, and the state agencies that police benefit fraud say so plainly.
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How the FBI got him back from India
The FBI added Bedi to its Most Wanted Fraudsters list on September 3. Indian law enforcement arrested him soon afterward and handed him to U.S. agents, and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs assisted with the return. In the release, FBI Director Kash Patel cited more than 260 removal actions in 20 months.
Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said he commended “the work of the FBI and international partners to get Mr. Bedi back to the U.S. to face justice.” W. Mike Herrington, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle office, said the bureau “is committed to pursuing those who attempt to outrun the consequences of their criminal actions.”
Bedi was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on October 16, where prosecutors planned to ask that he be held until trial. The office has not announced the outcome of that hearing or set out a trial date.
What the charges carry
Wire fraud and SNAP benefit fraud each carry up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the release. Those are the maximums. A judge sets any sentence after a conviction, and none has been reached here.
USDA Inspector General John Walk said in the release: “Stealing SNAP benefits – food assistance benefits intended for low-income Americans – is wrong.” Walk’s office is the watchdog inside the Agriculture Department, which runs SNAP, and it was one of the three investigating agencies in this case. It takes reports of misuse of USDA programs through its online hotline portal, confidentially or anonymously. Anyone who suspects a store of paying cash for SNAP balances can use that portal.
What a store case means for households on SNAP
Nothing in the Tacoma allegations charges a cardholder. The question for a household is what the rules say about selling a card balance, and the answer from the agencies that enforce them is firm. Pennsylvania’s Office of State Inspector General defines SNAP trafficking as the illegal exchange of benefits for cash or anything other than food, and gives a store handing over cash for a percentage of a recipient’s balance as its first example.
The same office says recipients found to have trafficked benefits must repay them and can be disqualified from SNAP, up to a lifetime ban, besides facing criminal charges. Store owners can be barred as approved SNAP vendors. The page speaks for Pennsylvania, but the program it describes is the federal one that Bedi’s store was authorized to join.
For a store, then, the authorization to accept SNAP is the asset at risk as well as the criminal exposure. For a household, the open question is whether a retailer fraud case touches the monthly benefit at all. On the public record, the charge is that a store owner took benefits from cards, and nothing in the release changes how any household’s benefit is calculated or renewed.
Does a store fraud case change your SNAP renewal date?
A fraud headline does not move a household’s recertification date, and a missed renewal or an unreported change can still end SNAP benefits. The senior rules that raise a benefit are the details most households never learn.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer fills that gap. It includes 51 state packs and a renewal and reporting calendar, and Part 3, The Senior Rules Most People Miss, covers the deductions that can raise a SNAP benefit.
Put every SNAP renewal and reporting date on one calendar in the Renewal Organizer →
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This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
