8 January 2026
H.I.T.s - Fraud, fraud, fraud
Reports of fraud in welfare programs have been expanding explosively since a video about daycare fraud in Minnesota went viral. In all too many cases, it appears that the fraud has been ignored, tolerated, and even—some assert—abetted by Blue-state politicians and bureaucrats. At a moment when Democrats are trying to use “affordability” as a vote-winning talking point, the knowledge that immigrant fraudsters are getting rich stealing taxpayer dollars while middle-class Americans struggle is not the news they want disseminated.
More fraud in Boston
A high-dollar SNAP fraud operation busted in Boston last month seem to have gotten lost in the Christmas rush. On December 17, two Haitian immigrants (one a naturalized citizen and the other a Haitian national with lawful permanent residence in the U.S.) were arrested for food stamp fraud amounting to almost $7 million from two tiny “variety stores” in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood.
Antonio Bonheur (age 74) owns and runs the 150-square-foot Jesula Variety Store, while Saul Alisme (age 21) owns and runs the 500-square-foot Saul Mache Mixe Store. The stores appear to have caught the attention of investigators because of the amount of SNAP activity occurring at the locations—as much as $500,000 per month, compared to a full-service supermarket’s average SNAP redemption of $82,000 per month in the same neighborhood.
During undercover operations, both defendants exchanged SNAP benefits for cash and alcohol. Additionally, among the limited SNAP-eligible merchandise sold by the stores were humanitarian-aid MannaPack meals, intended by the non-profit Feed My Starving Children for free distribution in food-insecure foreign countries; they are never meant to be sold, but the stores were apparently selling them for $8 each.
The majority of the fraud appears to have occurred at Bonheur’s store (Jesula Variety), which has been accepting SNAP cards since September 2021 (Alisme’s store only opened in December 2024). Although the Jesula Variety Store’s SNAP redemption did not begin topping $50,000 per month until January 2024, the pattern of SNAP transactions (high-dollar amounts, incompatible with the amount of merchandise available in the store) suggests that fraudulent redemption for cash may have been occurring from the start.
Charging documents also reveal the interesting fact that Bonheur has himself been receiving SNAP benefits, claiming to have no income, since 2022. In 2025, 100% of his SNAP benefits were redeemed at his own store.
Somali daycare fraud in MN leads to…WA?
In late December, after it was noticed that “child and adult care centers in Minnesota” were “maxing out donations to a Somali candidate in Washington,” investigative eyes turned to Somali-run daycare businesses there. A reporter for The Center Square (formerly Watchdog.org) attempted to visit four daycare providers and reported she found no children and got no answers to her questions about whether a daycare was operating on the premises. Another ‘citizen reporter’ claims to have visited twelve and found children at only one.
Behind only Minnesota and Ohio, Washington has the third largest Somali immigrant population in the country. Reportedly, 12 out of 25 home daycare providers in one area of Federal Way, Washington listed on the Child Care Aware website as accepting state subsidies are Somali-run. Predictably, the media and state officials who are Democrats are claiming that attempts to investigate daycare providers are “harassment,” and Washington’s Attorney General, Nick Brown, described it as “racist.”
The chairman of the Pierce County (WA) Republicans, who owns two daycares and a preschool with his wife, is “flabbergasted” at the amounts—tens of thousands of dollars per month—that some home daycare providers are reported to receive in government subsidies. “The bottom line is per head, per child, it’s about $1,500, $1,600 tops, so how are they getting that much?” he asked. “I want to see which program gets them that much money per head because I want to get involved in it.”
Even though Washington’s Office of Fraud and Accountability reported over $2 million in overpayments to providers in Fiscal Year 2025, only one consumer and no providers were criminally convicted of fraud, with only $20,474 recovered. The primary reasons for provider overpayment were failure to provide attendance records (26%), overbilling (21%), and failure to provide services (9%). A mysterious “Other,” at 17%, includes missing receipts and missing signatures on attendance records. Up to 20% of overpayments appear to result from various kinds of administrative errors on the part of the Department of Children, Youth and Families.
CT police chief ‘retires’ after stealing department funds
On Monday morning, New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson was confronted by his assistant police chiefs: several officers had noticed “irregularities” in the account used to pay confidential informants. Usually, about $5,000 is taken out of the account each month and kept in a safe at the police station, to be used by detectives to reward informants. But in both November and December, a second $5,000 withdrawal was made.
Jacobson, who has been the police chief since July 2022, admitted that he had taken the $10,000. He had been overseeing the informant fund for years, since he was assistant chief of investigations, but did not turn that duty over to anyone else after being appointed police chief. It is unknown at this point whether he may have stolen previous amounts from the fund. His office has been sealed, and the state police will be investigating.
In a meeting in which the mayor, Justin Elicker, had planned to place Jacobson on administrative leave, Jacobson instead submitted his paperwork to retire (as opposed to resigning), effective that day. He had been a member of the department for over 18 years, and had served in the East Providence, Rhode Island Police Department for 9 years before that. The mayor has appointed Assistant Chief David Zannelli as acting chief for now.
If Jacobson’s salary was commensurate with that of the previous police chief, he was probably making around $170,000 per year. It is unknown why he would risk his position for a comparatively ‘mere’ $10,000.
Also caught my eye…
Trans child of wealthy Democrats vandalizes VP Vance’s Cincinnati home
Hilton in damage-control mode after MN hotel self-righteously cancels DHS agents’ reservations
Antifa attack causes mass power outage in Berlin, Germany
Follow-up
Brown U. shooter’s video
The Portuguese man who killed two students at Brown University and then murdered a professor at MIT who had once been his classmate apparently left video recordings made after the killings but before his suicide that suggest the attacks had been planned for a long time, but did not reveal any particular motive. He was disgusted with the claims he yelled “Allahu akbar”; rather, he said, he exclaimed “Oh no” in dismay that he didn’t have as many targets as he hoped for. Despite insisting that he was not mentally ill, he appears to have wanted to die but also to make sure he “wouldn’t be the one who ended up suffering the most from all this.” His description of having “plenty of opportunities” during the semester (he claims to have “chickened out” on many occasions) squares with reports that he had been seen hanging around the building before.
Got news?
The Democrat Party is the greatest domestic threat we face in this country.
How many more examples do we need that the government’s role is not to take care of people?
What if we could restructure government’s role to protect the people v take care of the people?
We’d at least have more $$ not wasted creating more criminals.