Chantel LaShawn Peavy was sentenced October 20 to 18 months in federal prison for her part in a scheme that borrowed the names and personal information of more than 650 people to apply for SNAP food benefits. Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Michigan say the cards were mailed to addresses she and her co-defendant controlled. That co-defendant, Kirk Deshaun Woodley, pleaded guilty on September 22 and has no reported sentence yet.
Hundreds of applications, 650 borrowed names
The Justice Department says Woodley conspired with Peavy and others to submit hundreds of fraudulent applications for SNAP benefits. Each used the name and personal information of a real person, more than 650 of them in all. Once an application was approved, the benefits were loaded onto an EBT card, the debit-style card SNAP uses, and the card went into the mail.
The mail did not go to the victims. It went to addresses controlled by Woodley and Peavy, who either sold the cards to co-conspirators for resale or used the benefits themselves to make purchases. The department puts the intended loss at $1.1 million. Spread across more than 650 names, that is at most about $1,700 per name, by simple division.
The release does not say how the people whose names were used found out, or whether any have been told. Anyone who suspects a benefit case was opened in their name can report it at IdentityTheft.gov, the Federal Trade Commission’s site, which offers a step-by-step recovery plan and covers credit freezes.
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Nothing in the department’s account involves a skimmer or a stolen card. The cards were issued on applications that were approved, then mailed to addresses the defendants controlled. For the people whose names were used, the first sign of trouble would have been a benefit case they never opened, not a missing card.
Card theft is a separate problem in Michigan, but the state’s numbers show the scale of benefit crime. BridgeDetroit reported in June 2024 that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services had replaced more than $240,000 in stolen benefits that fiscal year, up 32 percent. Spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said the department will never send emails or texts requesting card or PIN information.
Eighteen months against a 20-year ceiling
Peavy’s 18 months came on the conspiracy charge, the department says, in case number 2:25-cr-20834. Woodley’s separate case is 2:26-cr-20191. Assistant U.S. Attorney Corinne M. Lambert prosecuted both. The release gives no restitution figure for Peavy and does not say whether her term followed a plea agreement.
Wire fraud carries a maximum of 20 years, and under the federal conspiracy statute a person who conspires to commit it faces the same penalties as the offense itself. Peavy’s 18 months is far below that ceiling. The department does not say what factors the court weighed.
Woodley’s plea includes a second count, aggravated identity theft, and that one works differently. Federal law adds a fixed two years to the sentence for the underlying fraud when a defendant uses another person’s means of identification, and the two years cannot run at the same time as the fraud sentence. Probation is not allowed on that count.
Aggravated identity theft covers the use of another person’s means of identification without lawful authority during and in relation to certain felonies, and the list includes mail, bank and wire fraud. A court cannot shorten the sentence for the underlying fraud to make up for the two added years, the statute says.
The wire fraud statute also sets a higher ceiling of 30 years and a fine of up to $1 million when the offense involves a presidentially declared disaster or affects a financial institution. Nothing in the department’s description of the Michigan case points to either circumstance, so the 20-year ceiling is the one that applies.
The release does not name a sentencing date for Woodley. Any sentence on that count would carry the two-year add-on on top of whatever he receives for the wire fraud conspiracy. Peavy’s case, as the department describes it, involved only the conspiracy charge, so no such add-on appears in her 18 months.
One of ten cases in a month-and-a-half surge
Peavy’s sentence is one of ten cases summarized in the October 21 announcement by the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, USDA and USDA’s inspector general. Between September 1 and October 21, 13 U.S. Attorney’s offices and the Utah Attorney General’s office took action against more than 40 defendants, with nearly $45 million in intended losses, nearly $42 million of it SNAP.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said these schemes “siphoned millions from taxpayers and robbed struggling Americans of the benefits they depend on.” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said: “Every instance of SNAP fraud has two victims: families in dire need and taxpayers.”
The Michigan case adds a third group to that count: people who never applied for anything. Their names were the raw material. Whether any of the 650 lost benefits, credit standing or time clearing their record is not in the department’s summary, and the release gives no count of how many were notified.
For a person whose identity was used, the scheme’s legal ending does not close the personal one. The 18 months settle what Peavy owes the court. They leave open how someone finds out a case exists under their name, and what to do in the hour after learning it.
How would a person know a benefit case was opened in their name?
A benefit case opened in someone’s name leaves a trail its owner never sees: an application, a card in the mail, purchases at a store. In the Michigan case more than 650 names were used before the cards went to addresses the defendants controlled. A person who learns of it later has to build a record from nothing, with dates, agencies called and report numbers.
The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit puts the first-hour recovery plan, a fraud evidence and report log, and the free credit-freeze steps in one place. Part 4, Locking Down What Is Left, covers what to secure once the first reports are made.
Open the identity-theft recovery plan and report log in the kit →
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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.
