A Jackson, Mississippi man was sentenced to 17 months in federal prison for spending food stamp benefits that his girlfriend diverted from her job as an EBT customer service representative, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi announced Oct. 27. Aljordan Cannon, 28, was also ordered to pay $16,968.72 in restitution. He pleaded guilty July 15 to food stamp fraud.
The benefits did not belong to Cannon’s household. Prosecutors say his girlfriend, Jarane Bines, used her position at Conduent, a company that works with state governments on EBT benefit distribution, to access SNAP and TANF benefits of recipients across the country without authorization. Anyone on SNAP or TANF could wonder whether a card balance was among them, and the release does not say.
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What did the girlfriend’s job give her access to?
Bines was a customer service representative for Conduent, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office release. The office says she “used her position with Conduent to access and obtain” SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits belonging to recipients throughout the United States, and then gave the benefits to Cannon.
Conduent “plays a key role in EBT processing by partnering directly with state governments,” the office said when Cannon pleaded guilty. That position put a customer service representative close to the records of people who never spoke to her.
The release does not say how many recipients were affected, which states they live in or how much Bines took in total. It does describe SNAP as a federally funded national program that helps qualifying low- and middle-income families buy food, and TANF as aid for low-income families with children under 18.
What did Cannon admit, and what did he get?
Cannon unlawfully acquired and used $16,968.72 in SNAP benefits between Aug. 12 and Nov. 19, 2023, according to the release. He is the second person sentenced in the scheme. The charge was food stamp fraud, and the July 17 plea announcement lists a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger and USDA Inspector General John Walk announced the sentence. The USDA Office of Inspector General investigated, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly T. Purdie prosecuted the case.
What happened to Bines?
Bines pleaded guilty to food stamp fraud on Jan. 23, 2026, and was sentenced April 30 to four years of probation, with 120 days of home detention under electronic monitoring. She was ordered to pay $39,208.53 in restitution, more than twice Cannon’s figure.
She is not the only Conduent customer service representative from Jackson to land in federal court. A December 2025 release from the same office describes Nya Irving, who held the job from Sept. 26, 2022, to Nov. 20, 2023, and was sentenced to five years of probation. Irving obtained $41,587.87 in SNAP benefits and $975.19 in TANF benefits without authorization, and shared EBT card data with a friend, Velton Taylor Williams Jr., who was sentenced separately in September.
What can SNAP households do if benefits go missing?
The release does not tell recipients how to find out whether their benefits were taken in this scheme. USDA’s scam alert page says to check an EBT account regularly for charges that were not made, to change the PIN immediately if any show up, and to contact the local SNAP office if benefits were stolen.
USDA’s fraud reporting page sends suspected criminal activity to the USDA Office of Inspector General, which takes reports online at hotline.oig.usda.gov or by phone at (202) 690-1622. People can report anonymously. For anyone who gives a PIN or card number to a caller or a text, the page says never to provide those by phone or text.
Would you spot a theft from inside the system?
The Mississippi case describes a theft by someone with access to the benefit system itself. What a household can control is how quickly a problem shows up in its own accounts, and how much of the rest of its money is locked down if one set of details leaks.
Scam-Proof Your Accounts in a Weekend is a 13-page guide that includes how to lock your bank logins with two-step login, alerts and a verbal password, and how to freeze your credit at all three bureaus, free by federal law. It ends with a first-hour plan for the day a scam gets through anyway.
Get the bank-login and credit-freeze guide to protect your money from an inside theft →
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.
