Vice President J.D. Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud has taken a number of actions to tackle fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the months since its establishment.
From Operation Cold SNAP, in which multiple government agencies coordinated to execute warrants on SNAP retailers in Minnesota, to the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) probe into millions of allegedly fraudulent payments to dead people in Puerto Rico, and indictments secured by the Department of Justice, the federal government has taken a variety of actions to root out fraud in the food assistance program.
“Every day, the Trump Administration exposes more fraud. The anti-fraud task force led by Vice President Vance is working around the clock to ensure that your tax dollars are being used to serve American families, not fraudsters,” a Vance spokesperson said in a statement to Breitbart News.
On April 16, the Department of Agriculture announced Operation Cold SNAP, in which agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) coordinated to execute search warrants at 20 SNAP retailers in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, suspected of SNAP benefit trafficking.
“Fraudulent SNAP retailers steal from victims that include children who rely on federal nutrition assistance and dishonor the charity of American taxpayers who fund the assistance,” USDA Inspector General John Walk said in a statement at the time.
“OIG will continue to work hand-in-hand with federal law enforcement partners and agencies across the government in the war on fraud and hold criminals to account,” he added.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins hailed Operation Cold SNAP as a “huge success,” adding it was powered by Vance’s task force.
On May 6, Walk announced an investigation into Puerto Rico Comptroller Carmen Vega Fournier’s findings that dead people were issued $150 million in Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) benefits between 2017 and 2024.
The funds were administered by the USDA, and the NAP program is similar to SNAP.
“According to the Comptroller’s March 2026 report, 38,618 NAP participants were not alive at the time benefits were paid out between 2017 and 2024,” a USDA OIG release notes.
“I am grateful for the Comptroller’s work that led to this important finding so that proper authorities can work to ensure that federal food assistance goes to eligible recipients and not spent by those exploiting the dead,” Walk said in the release.
The Department of Justice has also taken action to prosecute alleged SNAP fraud in recent weeks. On April 20, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio announced the indictment of five men who allegedly schemed to steal close to $1 million in SNAP benefits.
The five defendants, all of whom are Romanian nationals, including Ionut Ilie, Constantin Eugen Ion, Valentin Velicu, Dragos Georghie Vasile, and Marian Alexandru Semplican, are charged with Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Mail Fraud, Conspiracy to Commit Access Device Fraud, Conspiracy to Commit Identity Theft, and Sale or Receipt of Stolen Government Monies.
On May 7, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island announced an indictment of Felipe Almonte Polanco, a previously convicted felon who allegedly schemed to receive SNAP benefits by using stolen identities between 2021 and 2026.
Per a DOJ release:
The indictment alleges that between October 2021 and April 2026, Polanco made balance inquiries on Rhode Island EBT cards associated with the stolen identities of at least 18 individuals and personally used cards issued in the names of at least nine victims. During the execution of a search warrant at Polanco’s residence, investigators recovered multiple EBT cards and materials used to create identification cards. The scheme resulted in Polanco receiving approximately $69,000 in fraudulent SNAP benefits.
During an anti-fraud task force roundtable on the White House campus on Wednesday, Vance stressed that “fraud is not a victimless crime.”
“I think the theme here of the anti-fraud task force up to this point has really been that we’re protecting two classes of victims here: We’re protecting the American taxpayers who shouldn’t have their money stolen by fraudsters,” he said, “and of course, we’re protecting the people who need these services.”
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