Feds: "Aunty Florence" turned food stamps into $$$
If you're a welfare recipient in Darby Borough, Aunty Florence's West African Food Market was the place to go, not for the fruit and veggies, but to convert food stamps into cash.
If you're a welfare recipient in Darby Borough, Aunty Florence's West African Food Market was the place to go, not for the fruits and veggies, but to convert food stamps into cash.
That's what U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger is alleging in federal charges filed today against Florence Kingsley, a/k/a Florence Kingsley Mamulu, the store owner in the Delaware County borough bordering Southwest Philadelphia.
The feds say Kingsley, 59, was doling out cash and keeping a healthy cut for herself, processing the fraudulent transactions through the EBT terminal in her store. For instance, she'd "purchase" about $200 in food-stamp benefits and give the recipient $120.
Not a bad deal for Aunty Florence. Except that Kingsley, who allegedly defrauded the government of nearly $300,000, faces up to five years in prison, if convicted.