The owner of a grocery store in New Jersey’s largest city is headed to prison for running a food stamp benefit fraud scheme while trying to hide his involvement in the business.
Jamil Bader received a 37-month sentence Thursday. The 60-year-old Teaneck man pleaded guilty in July to a fraud count.
Bader ran a small store in Newark but put its ownership in another person’s name because he was banned from accepting food stamp benefit charges due to a similar fraud scheme.
Bader gave some customers cash in return for their food stamp benefits and kept a portion of the money for himself. The scam netted $754,424 between September 2013 and September 2016, money he will now have to repay as restitution.
Authorities say Bader fled the United States in a bid to escape prosecution, but was later arrested.
The Associated Press contributed to this article