(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced criminal charges yesterday against two defendants, fifty-five-year-old Abdou Jallow and thirty-nine-year-old Alicia Mastrantoni, both of Pittsburgh, in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud the United States Department of Agriculture. The charges stem from the two defendants exchanging Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamp, benefits for cash, which allowed certain beneficiary recipients to use this cash to purchase illegal controlled substances. As alleged in the complaint, Jallow, a manager of a Pittsburgh convenience store, and Mastrantoni, an employee of the same store, exchanged these SNAP benefits for cash for various store customers, many of whom used this cash to purchase illegal controlled substances. Jallow and Mastrantoni tried to conceal the nature of these transactions by using fraudulent universal product codes (UPCs) on the cash register of the store. The store was identified as being involved in fraud through the SNAP benefit transactions, which were significantly high in both dollar amount and volume. It is believed that Jallow and Mastrantoni fraudulently exchanged over $550,000 in SNAP benefits over the course of the investigation. The charges that were filed in federal court are part of the Department of Justice’s 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. The charges announced by Rivetti yesterday are part of a strategically coordinated, nationwide law enforcement action that resulted in charges against 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud and opioid abuse schemes involving over $6.5 billion in false claims and significant patient harm, including death.