Court records detail one of the earliest charged transactions: on November 14, 2018, federal investigators watched Quinones drive to a store and purchase roughly 20 cases of Pepsi using three Link cards.
Prosecutors said from 2018 to 2023, Quinones paid cash to people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, in exchange for access to their Link cards and PINs. He then used those cards to make bulk purchases of sodas, water, and snacks at retail stores and resold the goods to convenience stores and restaurants for profit.
Chicago man bought and resold soda in $1.5 million food stamp fraud scheme
