A federal grand jury in Atlanta indicted Mercedes Reshard New on Oct. 7, and prosecutors say more than $4 million in food stamp benefits ran through more than 350 accounts that were opened with stolen identities between January 2020 and July 2026. New, 39, who goes by “Shawty Dred,” was arrested Oct. 13 and was remanded to the U.S. Marshals Service. The charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent.
The case turns on accounts that did not belong to the people whose names were on them. Prosecutors say the scheme began with applications for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, the federal food aid program known as SNAP or food stamps, filed under identities that were not New’s own. Anyone who suspects a benefit account exists in their name has a state agency to call, and the steps are below.
How prosecutors say 350 accounts fed one scheme
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, New opened the accounts with stolen identities and had the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards mailed to various metro Atlanta addresses. EBT cards work like debit cards at checkout.
The indictment says about $4.6 million was transferred by Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services into the fraudulently established accounts, and that about $4 million was siphoned out of them with the cards. The office’s headline figure is “more than $4 million,” and that is the amount charged as obtained. The roughly $4.6 million is the larger sum credited to the accounts.
A second strand involves a store. The release says New applied for his company, Shawty Dred LLC, to become an authorized SNAP retailer, and that more than $660,000 was taken through the store’s EBT use between April 2024 and November 2025. USDA revoked the store’s authorization in November 2025.
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The 63 counts New faces
The grand jury returned 46 counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of SNAP fraud and one count of illegal transactions with access devices, 63 counts in all. Aggravated identity theft is the count that speaks directly to real people: it covers using another person’s identification in connection with certain other felonies.
The release says police arrested New about two weeks after the revocation for allegedly selling SNAP benefits at a metro Atlanta store and seized 14 EBT cards issued to other people. Prosecutors say replacement cards were then mailed to his store address and other Atlanta-area addresses. The release does not say what the money was spent on and does not list maximum penalties.
What the officials said about the money
U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said New “allegedly stole over $4 million meant for poor families who need help putting food on the table.” USDA Inspector General John Walk said the defendant “allegedly stole food assistance benefits in Georgia from the poorest Americans.”
FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Marlo Graham said: “The FBI will aggressively pursue anyone who exploits these much-needed programs for personal gain.” The USDA Office of Inspector General and the FBI investigated, with help from the Georgia Department of Human Services Office of Inspector General. The release restates that the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
One case inside a Justice Department enforcement surge
A wider federal push was announced the same week. The Justice Department’s National USDA Benefits and Program Fraud Enforcement Surge, which began Sept. 1, 2026, has produced cases against more than 40 defendants across 13 U.S. attorney’s offices, with nearly $42 million in SNAP fraud and nearly $45 million in total intended losses. Attorney General Todd Blanche is quoted in that announcement.
The Atlanta indictment was announced on the same day, Oct. 21. The Justice Department release does not tie the two together in the pages published, so the surge figures describe the national effort, not New’s case. What sets the Georgia case apart is the identity-theft count, which makes the people whose names were used victims alongside the program itself.
What a person can do if a benefit account might carry their name
The release does not say how many real people had their identities used, whether any were notified, or how the victims were chosen. It names no one outside the defendant. Georgia residents and people elsewhere who receive an EBT card, a benefit letter or a notice about SNAP they never applied for have a first stop: the state agency that runs SNAP in the state where the notice came from.
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service says anyone who suspects abuse of federal nutrition programs can use its Report Nutrition Program Fraud page, and its SNAP fraud page describes trafficking, meaning exchanging SNAP benefits for cash, as fraud that carries consequences. In this case, prosecutors say the cards were mailed to addresses the defendant used, not to the people whose names were on the accounts, so a person has no mailbox warning to rely on and must ask the agency directly. Anyone who has had a Social Security number, driver’s license or other identity document stolen has the stronger reason to ask.
Could a benefit account be open in your name?
The thieves in a case like this do not need to touch an existing account. A new account opened in a stolen name can run for years before the person it names hears anything, and prosecutors say these ran from January 2020 to July 2026.
Scam-Proof Your Accounts in a Weekend covers the new-account route directly, including how to freeze your credit at all three bureaus, free by federal law, and how to lock your bank logins with two-step login, alerts and a verbal password. It also includes a family code word for fake grandchild-in-trouble calls, in a ten-move order that protects the most money first.
Get the credit-freeze and bank-lock steps in the weekend guide →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
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.
