Besmulla Yaqoobi, 45, of Salt Lake City, has been charged by the Utah Attorney General’s office over a Taylorsville market accused of trading cash for SNAP benefits. The Justice Department’s October 21 announcement puts the case at $5,994.89 in intended loss, the smallest of the ten cases it summarizes. Yaqoobi has not been convicted, and the charge is an allegation.
What Sahara Market is accused of doing
In 2022, the department says, Yaqoobi co-owned Sahara Market in Taylorsville, Utah. A co-owner signed a federal contract to accept SNAP, and the contract stated that trading cash for SNAP benefits was prohibited. USDA’s inspector general opened a joint investigation with the Taylorsville Police Department in 2023.
Surveillance from January to April 2024 showed 15 to 20 people entering the market, making large EBT transactions and leaving soon afterward with little or no items. The department says those transactions totaled $5,429.89. Similar transactions followed on July 8 and August 8, 2024, with no amounts given.
SNAP’s rules fall on both sides of the counter. USDA says a retailer who trades benefits for cash faces temporary or permanent disqualification, a civil monetary penalty and criminal charges, and a recipient who sells benefits for cash faces disqualification, criminal charges and prosecution that can mean fines or prison time.
USDA’s examples of fraud on the retailer side include exchanging benefits for cash, selling ineligible items and lying on a retailer application. Its examples on the recipient side include lying about income or identity and selling benefits for cash, the mirror image of the exchange the Utah market is accused of running.
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KSL reported more detail from the charging documents. In July 2024, an informant asked whether he could get $100 cash back on an EBT card. Yaqoobi allegedly wrote a $315 check and ran EBT transactions of $359 and $15 without the informant receiving any items.
In August 2024, the charging documents say, Yaqoobi gave an informant a $250 check and rang up just over $287 in items that the informant never took. KSL reports he was charged with public assistance fraud by a provider, a second-degree felony, in Utah’s 3rd District Court. In both episodes the benefits charged exceeded the check: $374 against $315 in July, and just over $287 against $250 in August, gaps of $59 and about $37 by simple subtraction.
The $5,994.89 is the department’s intended-loss figure. The surveillance transactions it describes add up to $5,429.89, and the release does not itemize the remaining $565. Neither the department nor KSL reports a plea, a hearing date or a sentence.
Where a $5,994.89 case sits among ten
The next-smallest case in the announcement is $13,392, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. A Massachusetts case follows at $22,402, and the largest, in the Southern District of Ohio, is $29.7 million. The ten summaries cover only some of the surge’s more than 40 defendants, so this is the smallest of the ten, not necessarily of all.
Against the surge’s nearly $45 million in intended losses, Yaqoobi’s figure is roughly 0.013 percent. It is also the only case of the ten prosecuted by a state. The other nine are federal, listed as indictments, complaints, guilty pleas or sentencings, while the Utah matter is an information filed by the Attorney General’s office.
The ten cases sit at different stages. Four are indictments, two are complaints, and one is a guilty plea. Only two had reached sentencing by the announcement, the Oregon ring and the Michigan case. The Utah matter stands alone as an information, the charging document the Attorney General’s office filed.
John A. Condon, acting executive associate director of Homeland Security Investigations, said in the announcement that “SNAP benefit fraud steals from American taxpayers and from the families who depend on these benefits.” The Utah allegations fit that description on a small scale, with a store accused of turning a food benefit into cash.
KSL reports that a 2025 case against Yaqoobi and his partner was dismissed in favor of the new charges, and that the market has since closed. The department’s release says only that the Utah Attorney General’s office is prosecuting. It names no other defendant and does not say whether the partner faces charges.
One store among more than 250,000
USDA says more than 250,000 retailers are authorized to accept SNAP benefits, and it holds each responsible for its own conduct and that of everyone who works in the store. A single store’s alleged $5,994.89 is small beside that base.
A store joins the program by applying, and a store already authorized that receives a re-authorization letter can complete its application online, USDA says. Retailers must use EBT equipment, follow program rules and review the training materials. Questions go to the SNAP Retailer Service Center at 1-877-823-4369.
The SNAP fraud page directs anyone who sees a store offering cash for benefits to USDA’s Report Nutrition Program Fraud form. The Utah investigation itself began with USDA’s inspector general and a city police department working together on one market.
For a household, the question the case raises is practical. A store can lose its standing over $5,994.89, but a cardholder’s own exposure runs through a different set of rules, the renewals and reports each state requires, and those carry their own dates. USDA’s SNAP page is the federal starting point for them.
Which SNAP dates could cost a household its benefits?
The Utah case concerns a store’s conduct, not a cardholder’s paperwork. A household’s own SNAP exposure runs through renewals, reports and documents, each with a state-specific date that is easy to lose track of.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer holds 51 state packs, a renewal document checklist and a renewal and reporting calendar, so every date for a household’s own state sits in one place. It also covers the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt.
Get the 51 state packs and renewal calendar in the organizer →
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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.
