How Does This Happen?
- A southwest suburban man used more than 3,000 LINK cards to steal almost $1 million in government funds, purchasing "massive amounts of energy drinks and candy" and selling them to West Side stores, officials said.
Wael S. Ghosheh, 46, has been charged with theft of government property, identity theft, money laundering, unauthorized use of food stamp benefits and wire fraud, all of which are felonies, records show.
Ghosheh, of the 5500 block of West 84th Street in southwest suburban Burbank, is in Cook County Jail after appearances Wednesday and Thursday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, during which bail was set at $50,000, records show.
The level of fraud here is astronomical. And from what we observe, hear and can deduce, barely scratches the surface of some of the crap that goes on when there is no accountability in the system, no oversight by the authorities and the watchdogs are busy licking their balls and the balls of those in power.
Labels: scandals
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
65 Comments:
We would like to make some comments on state and local government and it's efficiency, but SCC about said it all.
FIVE felonies and only $50k bond?... WTF!
Even the most liberal Dems can no longer refute this as proof it is time for photos on the LINK cards.
Great job getting one scumbag. There are hundreds more just like him in our beloved ghettos alone in chicago.
Grant it he said as the only guy caught. Why have link? Just send these link people to the school cafeterias for their meals picked out healthy foods by the obamas.
I wonder if he voted 3000 times also?
This story is obviously all Racist Islamophobia!
The police are picking on him because of his name!
/sarc
I arrested a prostitute on the west side a few summer's ago. She said there's an Arab guy who drive's an ice cream truck and pays $20 cash for every $45 on someone's link card. Takes the link card and goes to cost co and stocks up so he sell ice cream and crap to the west side mutts. But putting a picture and thumb print on the link card is racist according to some.
But yet it's "racially motivated" or "degrading" or "perpetuates class warfare" when it's suggested that the recipient's photo appears on the card.
I recently overheard one liberal asshole where I work claiming the LINK card color was changed because the purple it had once been had become associated with blacks and an accompanying "stigma of being poor". No doubt it took a committee years of research costing millions of taxpayer dollars to arrive at this conclusion.
But I guess if you don't need a photo I.D. to vote in presidential and mayoral elections, why would you need a photo on your LINK card when you're only gonna sell it to the 'Ayy-Rabs' for dope money?
One of the biggest problems with the liberal government giveaway programs (other than they shouldn't exist) is that they do little or nothing to police them.
This was obvious with the free Obama phones that were intended to keep people connected in Emergencies. With little or no safeguards built in, ghetto dwellers were literally able to walk into their local cell phone corner store and walk out with a new Obama phone package, and walk down the street to another cell phone store and duplicate the process for a second phone and so on.
YouTube is full of videos (no doubt recorded on free Obama phones!) describing how simple the process is, with actual ghetto trash showing off their multiple, new phones.
If the government would only hire some investigators for these damn programs, they'd be able to stop a lot of the waste and fraud that occurs. Of course, then their friends and family members might also get caught, so, well... Never mind!
Hmm Muslim and from burbank I'm sure no terrorist ties there.
But of course there isn't a need for welfare reform. That would be racist. Can't go after the protected class, I mean the victims. God help our country.
One of the situations where they should throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I have seen this going on at SAM's club during their early morning business hours at the Evergreen Park store a few years ago. Guys with whole flat bed carts of flaming hots were using a stack of LINK cards to pay..
Food stamps should be abolished and replaced with a 50 pound bag of flour, a bag of sugar, a carton of eggs and some dry milk off the back of a county truck. You need bread - bake some.
Hell, most of those folks with "Link" cards are scammers. Ever notice the stuff they buy? Or the car they drive? Or the clothing they wear? Can't blame them.. Milk the system if you can...
When I shop at Costco you will see sometimes a Middle Eastern person with a huge cart of items. Then at the check out, they will hand the Costco cashier like 20 link cards. No one says anything or questions anything. Costco benefits from selling their goods. The store owner benefits from buying the link cards at a hefty discount from the original link card holder. The original link card holder sells the link card so they can get high. The government really does not care because they want people to stay on the dole so they are dependent on the government. Everyone benefits except the responsible people.
Oooh come on. The candy and drinks are, "FOR THE CHILDREN"!
One of dart's candy thieves?
Yea well this has been going on for at least 12 years.
But you are racist for bringing this up. That will be the answer. Investigate the Link program? Never going to happen. If they were to straighten this program out it would easily pay for the pension problem. With tons of money left over. But we can't do that because- well most people should know why.
Why do construction workers get LINK cards, is that part of the negotiations when bidding on a project? When they rebuilt the Red Line everybody got excited when Burger King began accepting LINK. Is this compensation, or do the union halls just find boxes of cards in the alley?
How much different is this compared to authorities using Obamacare to juice Chicago's economy by allowing the gangs to run wild shooting people?
BANG!! Oh there goes $10K in government subsidies to a hospital ER.
BANG! Oh there goes a couple thousand to the multinational pharma for some prescription drugs.
BANG! Oh there goes a few "K" for first responder overtime.
BANG! There goes hundreds of thousands to doctors, nurses and medical techs.
Let's not forget the Xrays, CT scans MRI's and oh...oh the rehab too!
Illinois could legalize weed and put a huge dent in the gangs cash flow reducing the incentive to join a gang and therefore reduce the violence.
Illinois could then tax weed and have a new source of income to fund pensions, schools, and mental health centers.
Now ask yourself why the issue is not anywhere near being on the table!
How does this happen??
Yes give away our money, no money to fund the pensions but they can throw away millions, billions and no accountability? Wonder how many more are doing this? what does lisa madigans office do?
Now we KNOW why link benefits were cut down some months ago! This is SCUM (Paki-fled anyone---to avoid charges?) TIP: look into cash migration to demoncratic political war chests it's not all coming from hollywood folks! The govt programs aren't there just to help out deserving folk,it's for the creepy minions to divert to political purposes.(see daley crime family reports).
I've stated here multiple times as much as you want to get on LINK card users they are not the ones getting rich off this program, fraud included. They keep these programs going because of the people that get paid as a result i.e. corporate level farmers, major food retailers and as obvious the corner store man that flips LINK to real dollars. The govt lies about crime, lies about programs for the children but someone you guys bite that these welfare programs are for the users. They are not. You how many white libs in social services would be out of work, how many degree programs would drop enrollment, how many rich businessmen would drop profits if the govt stops giving people food stamps and WIC?
LINK card fraud is so out of control they'll never reign it in.
Half the people on Medicaid in Illinois are ineligible but get benefits anyway.
The politicians could balance the budget and pay don't most of the debt by getting rid of the gargantuan fraud in welfare.
Simple--he votes as a Democrat.
So a one million dollar crime gets you a $50,000 bond. So you can get out with $5000. Makes sense. That will deter them.
And he's hit with a bail he'll make with the cash in his pocket! Another Muslim being supported by the very system he's dedicated to destroy. American society has turned upside down, thanks to three generations of "progressive" movements in politics, education and finance.
There is a huge upheaval coming within the next two years. I only hope there are enough young men and women brave enough, and smart enough, to put this train back on the tracks.
As for all you weak, older losers who cannot think about anything other than your pensions - well, good luck. Life is about to give you a big wake-up call. Get ready.
Ha!
Worried about a lousy million dollars?
What a nice distraction away from the trillion dollar bailouts of the parasitic bankers, politicians, and government cronies.
When lying is no longer enough to gain compliance, then the organs of security are unleashed on dissent and resistance.
"When it becomes serious, you have to lie." Jean-Claude Juncker simply gave voice to what the world's leaders practice on a daily basis, because now it's always serious.
And why is it now serious? Persuading tax donkeys and debt serfs that everything is going their way is now impossible without lies. Persuading the populace that the leadership is working on their behalf was jettisoned in the wake of the 2008 bailout of bankers and parasites.
Stripped of the artifice that they care about anything other than preserving the wealth of their cronies, global political leaders now rely on propaganda: narratives designed to manage expectations and perceptions, bolstered by carefully tailored official statistics.
Reliance on lies erodes legitimacy. As the rich get richer and the burdens on tax donkeys and debt serfs increase, the gulf between the official happy-story narrative and reality widens to the breaking point, and faith in the narrative and the leadership espousing it declines.
When 20% of the populace no longer believe the lies and begins questioning the state's enforcement of the status quo, the government devotes its resources to punishing dissenters and resisters. Whistleblowers are charged with trumped-up crimes; those publicly refuting the...
more: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-16/when-it-becomes-serious-first-they-lie-when-fails-they-arrest-you
HAHAHAHAHA best great way to put it its unreal the amount of FRAUD the bottom feeders create. I don't see any of the useless newspapers digging to get to the bottom of THIS FRAUDULENT SYSTEM......OH!!!! wait does not involved police related incidents so no news here. Wake up TAXPAYERS here is OUR money wasted by those who claim poverty and lack of jobs since they sell YOUR TAX MONEY for none other than cash,liquor,cigarettes and whatever they might need. PATHETIC
If there is no oversight, how did this guy get caught?
Scratching the surface is correct:
What about the tax dodgers at flee markets? they do not pay taxes on sales or their income.
They do not pay social security taxes for the wages paid to employees which are underpaid to begin with.
Furthermore, the flee market merchants who sell consummables; where is their crap prepared and in what condition are these premises?
"...no oversight by the authorities..." -- SCC
The authorities are too busy watching an elderly person of our acquaintance who is barely hanging on financially. Took over a year to get a change of address filed with Ill. LINK. Letters ignored, phones not answered. Finally I got online for them, took four or five repeat attempts over weeks, typing it right into the system, before it sunk in with the state.
Then much excitement. They demand proof of something (against their own written policy) by the 9th -- and they get it by certified mail/return receipt -- and then a letter arrives dated the 8th saying that benefits will be cut off because the person did not reply! No payments for months. Scratching along, maybe one meal a day.
Person fills out the correct form to file for the hearing they are entitled to by law. No hearing, no response at all -- except to cut the benefits from $189.00 to $135.00/month.
We hear that 1 out of 10 State Of Illinois employees make over $100,000 per year. This is the job performance you can expect in return.
...while scumbag Gosheh here must have had a bunch of liquor stores on a string, paying crackheads $5.00/card and then burning them up for profit. 3,000 cards, when a truly needy person can hardly hold on to one.
They should sweat this f__er until he gives up every corner store that must have been in on this -- and pull business licenses, prosecute like crazy, fill up the bus.
Rauner will have to buy his $6,000 bottles of wine somewhere else, the In And Out down the street just got boarded up...
That's a lot of delicious Rip It's
Here's another thing, I work in the ghetto and see all these tax service companies with signs in the window. The sign's read "No W2 needed to file your taxes". I'm no CPA but how is that possible?
"When I shop at Costco you will see sometimes a Middle Eastern person with a huge cart of items. Then at the check out, they will hand the Costco cashier like 20 link cards. No one says anything or questions anything."
3/16/2015 07:08:00 AM
I assume you called this in?
"For reporting fraud, please use the contact information below.
"Cash, SNAP, or Medical Assistance Fraud -- Potential fraud on the part of clients or retailers.
"Report Fraud for Cash, SNAP, or Medical Assistance Online --
https://www.illinois.gov/hfs/oig/Pages/OnlineComplaint.aspx
Or telephone --
1-800-843-6154 or 1-800-252-8903
1-877-765-3459 (TTY)
"When they rebuilt the Red Line everybody got excited when Burger King began accepting LINK."
3/16/2015 08:08:00 AM
It is illegal for Burger King to "accept" LINK. No restaurant meals allowed.
Report things like this when you see them.
I have seen one store up on Clark Street shut down for playing this game and there should be a lot more. Time to drop the hammer and end the party, to save these programs for the people who really need them.
Don't make sick old people take three buses into a dangerous part of town for a whole day of waiting, forms, questions, lines, a photo, being elbowed by screaming, running chiluns.
Oops. "Camera broke. System be discommunicated. Aw yaw come back tomorrow." So there you go, maybe wheeling your little oxygen tank along behind...
Go after the deep pockets like Costco and the other retailers who facilitate this fraud. They are right there in plain sight every day, sitting ducks, and all of their sales transactions are neatly recorded on their computers. So subpoena.
Why in the hell are you allowed to buy anything besides basic groceries with a LINK card? Cereal, eggs, milk, formula, etc. You should NOT be allowed to buy candy, pop, chips or anything remotely close to junk food on MY tax money.
Never mind "da hood". You wanna see some real serious Link Card Fraud? Come to West Rogers Park.
Take in the Indian and Pakistani markets up & down Devon. Or the Aldi in the 6200 block of California. You'll see several grocery carts, filled to rim with HUGE volumes of food. So much food that one can't help but surmise, this shit's heading to the buyer's south or west side corner store. I mean, seriously, who the fuck needs 20 bags of suger, or 20gallons of fuckin milk?
Then, sure as shit, they pay for it with a LINK Card. Then load it up into their nice, late model van and drive away smiling.
Shit gauls me to no end.
Welcome to America, motherfuckers. Where you get FREE shit...on the American taxpayer's dime.
Thanks liberals.
Here's how Wisconsin is handling it --
"Assistant Milwaukee County District Attorney David Feiss...says it doesn’t make sense to prosecute each person who might be selling their benefits.
"So he follows the money.
“If I have a store that’s defrauding the program out of $30, $40, $50,000 in a year, I think I can have more impact on fraud against the program by going after that store owner than I can going after a hundred recipients,” he says.
"...the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office is working with DHS to crack down on WIC fraud. Dozens of store owners have been prosecuted in the last few years for theft or providing cash for WIC checks. Now the District Attorney is pushing hard for deportation, too, because about half of the store owners who end up in trouble are not U.S. citizens, says Feiss."
http://fox6now.com/2014/11/16/the-more-their-parents-break-the-law-the-more-likely-they-are-to-pay-the-price-food-stamp-fraud-hits-children-hard/
"The level of fraud here is astronomical." -- SCC
Try this on for size --
Study: 'Small business' gov't loans going to luxury retailers, resorts
March 16, 2015
"The Small Business Administration is the federal agency that helps "little guy" businesses get loans they couldn't get through traditional lenders. Or so the story goes.
"According to a 2014 federal oversight report from public research group American Transparency, taxpayer-backed SBA loans are popular with businesses serving "wealthy lifestyles."
"The report, which analyzed SBA loans between 2007 and 2013, found that billions of dollars flowed to businesses that, in many cases, could obtain standard loans with standard interest rates. SBA loans offer advantageous low rates.
"During that period, the SBA issued $67.23 billion in loans and guarantees to 34,677 entities.
"Many of the loans, which ranged from $1 million to $5 million, went to luxury goods retailers, exclusive clubs, Fortune 100 companies, plastic surgery clinics and even private equity firms.
"Found among the list of borrowers were Rolex and Lamborghini dealers, Napa Valley wineries, Sears and State Farm affiliates, Jackson Hole and Lake Tahoe resorts, and Levine Leichtman Capital Partners in Beverly Hills -- not your typical mom-and-pop shops..."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/16/study-small-business-govt-loans-going-to-luxury-retailers-resorts/?intcmp=latestnews
"Them as has, gits."
"massive amounts of energy drinks and candy..."
Ghosheh tried to destroy most of the evidence by swallowing it and was trying to make his escape by scampering across high tension power lines.
LINK , Section 8 etc. never gets cut or even talked about reducing it yet every politician wants to "reform" our pensions. Talk about ass backwards!
Code of Silence said:
This was obvious with the free Obama phones that were intended to keep people connected in Emergencies. With little or no safeguards built in, ghetto dwellers were literally able to walk into their local cell phone corner store and walk out with a new Obama phone package, and walk down the street to another cell phone store and duplicate the process for a second phone and so on.
----------------------------------
I cant stand freeloaders taking advantage of the system as much as most of you guys on here but I wish you would at least get your facts straight when you try to make a point. The free "Obama" phones program actually started and was signed into law by GEORGE W. BUSH not Obama. Conservatives are just as much to blame as liberals for keeping this crappy program as well as the other giveaways.
Anonymous said...
Hmm Muslim and from burbank I'm sure no terrorist ties there.
3/16/2015 05:06:00 AM
I'm sure there is no money laundering going on either, or the products behind the counter with the Walgreen stickers come like that from the distributor.
$50K bond ? Give the dog pork to eat or nothing while he waits for the store owners to gather his bond money selling, cold pops, chips, untaxed cigarettes, spoiled meat, and expired can goods in the ghetto's across the city.
Chump change. You want to hear about some waste? Watch the segment of 60 minutes from 3/15 on the G paying out billions of dollars in benefits to dead people. yea, billions. They interview one lady that has been collecting her mothers social security since 1984. She got caught and is looking at a year in the can. Her excuse? Just before her mother died, mom said that you have a right to keep collecting my benefits. So she did. 30 years worth. Billions of fucking dollars. And by the admission of the head of social security, they can't afford to investigate.
We are fucked.
How can that happen? My wife passed away on the 13th, her SS check was direct deposited on the 17th and the bank notified me that SSA took it back on the 20th.
cut the bullshit....eliminate the fraud....and drop the hammer....if that means increasing the prison population by 10 fold, or 100 fold, so be it....it's time...
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Chump change. You want to hear about some waste? Watch the segment of 60 minutes from 3/15 on the G paying out billions of dollars in benefits to dead people. yea, billions. They interview one lady that has been collecting her mothers social security since 1984. She got caught and is looking at a year in the can. Her excuse? Just before her mother died, mom said that you have a right to keep collecting my benefits. So she did. 30 years worth. Billions of fucking dollars. And by the admission of the head of social security, they can't afford to investigate.
We are fucked.
3/16/2015 04:44:00 PM
I'm bored. I'll do the job for expenses and lunch.
ps: If any family member has died, make sure you run their ss# on the social security death database. It's printed there, publicly, shortly after the death.
If it ISN'T there, report it to social security and follow up on it, otherwise it's easy to use that ss# in an identity theft and other types of fraud, which could tie up the estate or property transfers in the future.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Why in the hell are you allowed to buy anything besides basic groceries with a LINK card? Cereal, eggs, milk, formula, etc. You should NOT be allowed to buy candy, pop, chips or anything remotely close to junk food on MY tax money.
3/16/2015 12:31:00 PM
Stay away from high-end bakeries, then, or you'll have a heart attack when you see $200-$500 special occasion cakes going out the door on LINK.
Mom used to bake MY birthday cake in our kitchen.
Nice job by PO J.B. From AFU who headed this investigation.
I called the Link Card Fraud Hot line over 30 times, each time was requested to leave a voicemail message.
After the 30th call, I received a message that the mailbox was full.
I then called the A G's Office, left several messegs and never a reply.
Last ditch effort was snail mail to AG's office.
No response .
I suspended my case and documented all my attempts
To report the Link Card Fraud.
There going easy on this guy, cause there is more people involved. For starters the link card agency is part of the scheme, next the uncles and family of this guy whom are in government office maybe Dorothy brown, and last but not least the politicians whom are behind this. If they can steal a million what's ten more. The Feds should pick this case up 911 pronto.
nothing new here! Under every administrations, regardless of politics, this nonsense has strived, unchecked......
Haven't had a good link since Lem's on 58th & [Prairie?] was still around.
The burden of a socialist benefit nation. The U.K. has been battling this curse for decades. That's why the UKip party is finally gaining some steam -- they want to restrict immigration to reduce the benefit abusers flocking into England and Scotland. Somalis and Pakistanis are some of the worst. Also, well-to-do Nigerian women find that it's cheaper and much safer to buy plane tickets to London right around the time that they're due to give birth -- deliver their babies in sanitary and modern London hospitals, and then, of course, skip the bill and head home. And I guess pointing this out makes me raciss.
The LINK card system if full of fraud with millions upon millions stolen funds from the taxpayer. Go after the store owners, especially those shit Arab stores on the south and west side. The hundreds of thousands they collect are funneled to terrorism. Cut the amount of link payments per family. just ,buy staples from certain certified stores who accept the card, cut out the pop and junk food. Kids get free breakfast and lunches at school, cut the link payments to these freeloaders.
Saw the 60 Minutes segment as well bout SS fraud. That lady the above poster was talking about told Pelly all that info as if she was a victim. I believe she said something like "I'm a mother, wife, grandmother, and now a felon. I wanted to yell thru the TV at Pelly to call her out on the 30 years of FRAUD. Scott Pelly kinda let her play the victim. Her answer was that she didn't know. I could see ignorance as an excuse for mayB a month or two, but 30 years?
Sister, PLEASE
Clearly Mr. Ghosheh votes democrat. Were he a republican voter, possibly even a Tea Party member, he would have been audited thoroughly during the past six years so that even his legitimately earned income would be confiscated to redistribute to more worthy beneficiaries. This is no different than the woman I overheard complaining about how her Medicaid wouldn't cover immunizations she needed for an OVERSEAS vacation. She had zero - zip - not one shred of shame or embarrassment, nor did she see the irony in being able to afford to travel overseas and still taking government handouts. It's time for the makers to start stealing from the system and get THEIR fair share too, I guess.
The burden of a socialist benefit nation. The U.K. has been battling this curse for decades. That's why the UKip party is finally gaining some steam -- they want to restrict immigration to reduce the benefit abusers flocking into England and Scotland. Somalis and Pakistanis are some of the worst. Also, well-to-do Nigerian women find that it's cheaper and much safer to buy plane tickets to London right around the time that they're due to give birth -- deliver their babies in sanitary and modern London hospitals, and then, of course, skip the bill and head home. And I guess pointing this out makes me raciss.
3/17/2015 03:52:00 PM
People have been doing that here for decades. They are called "Anchor Babies" and we then pay them benefits. It's not just the Mexicans. It's a huge business for China and it's costing us billions. This is a law we need to repeal.
Being right doesn't make you a racist.
"If any family member has died, make sure you run their ss# on the social security death database. It's printed there, publicly, shortly after the death."
3/16/2015 08:08:00 PM
Not any more. SS has tightened up on this. You will not see a listing printed in SSDI until THREE YEARS after the death now.
While this restriction was supposedly put in place to "help prevent identity theft," it actually facilitates fraud, as agencies are now unable to timely check to see if a person is dead or alive.
Brilliant.
This guy was always a bad person. All my life I knew that he was a mean and greedy man but I never thought it would go this far. I guess you never really know people. Not to mention how much of an asshole he was sleeping with different women God knows how many times a week. It's not where he's from or what religion(if he even believes in God) he is though I blame his parents who are even larger pigs than he is. God I hate this man.
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