Eleven Philadelphia business owners were charged in connection with a fraud scheme involving Pennsylvania’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), according to Attorney General Dave Sunday.
On Thursday, the attorney general announced felony charges against 11 grocery and convenience shop owners suspected of filing over $1 million in fraudulent reimbursement requests and earning almost $1 million from the WIC program.
“These business owners, for years, intentionally defrauded a state program designed to promote wellness for mothers and their children,” Sunday reported. “This type of criminal activity doesn’t just victimize taxpayers by defrauding the government; it hurts the women and children who rely on the services programs like WIC.”
According to officials, agents scrutinized thousands of receipts and performed audits between 2021 and 2025, revealing that documents had been faked and fabricated.
WIC vendors are obliged to submit invoices from recognized distributors for food and infant formula purchases, which they then supply to WIC beneficiaries in their businesses.
Prosecutors said agents discovered roughly 10,000 false reimbursement requests in total. According to officials, nearly 9,000 of these requests were satisfied, resulting in a total loss of $985,000 for the state.
Prosecutors say the defendants and their firms obtained the following compensation amounts based on false claims:
- Felix Sosa (El Paisano Express Food): $342,183.94
- Musa Barry (Uncle Musa Grocery): $226,557.88
- Business owned by an individual not yet in custody: $105,880.04
- Ramon Fernandez (Compare & Save Supermarket): $70,907.09
- Carmen Luciano (Carmen Grocery, Inc): $60,922.44
- Margarita Collado (Kendra Mini Market): $55,982.66
- Business owned by an individual not yet in custody: $42,834.16
- Amaury Espinal Gomez (Liberty Mini Market, Inc.): $40,120.61
- Raquel De La Cruz and Patxi De La Cruz (co-owners of Tioga Food Market 1 Inc): $39,864.83
- Francisco Garcia (Garcia Super Deli Market): $773.38
The business proprietors face felony charges of theft by fraud, forgery, and tampering with public records.
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