A Massachusetts restaurant owner was sentenced on October 5 to two years in federal prison for a food stamp scheme built on other people’s names. Raul Fernandez Vicioso, 38, of Fitchburg, ran El Primo Restaurant in Leominster. Prosecutors say he used the stolen identities of more than 100 real people to create 24 fake SNAP households and collect about $440,000 in food benefits.
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Two years, and $1.1 million to repay
U.S. District Judge Margaret R. Guzman imposed the sentence in federal court in Worcester, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts. Vicioso also gets three years of supervised release after the prison term, and was ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution and to forfeit $1.1 million.
He pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to commit SNAP fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, SNAP benefit fraud, aiding and abetting, and money laundering. He was charged on February 3, 2026, along with three co-defendants. The office notes that the details in the charging document are allegations, and that the remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley announced the sentence, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Danial Bennett of the Worcester branch prosecuted the case.
Whose names were on the ledgers
Behind the dollar figures are the people whose identities were taken. The office says the defendants bought or used stolen personal information from people in Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico. The release does not say how those details were first stolen, or whether the people whose names were used knew about the applications.
That leaves a practical question for anyone in those places: how a name and address ends up on a list like that. Names, addresses and other personal details are what a benefit application is built from, and anyone worried about where theirs are posted can start with data broker and people-search sites, where Incogni sends removal requests to those brokers for you. A letter about SNAP or unemployment benefits that no one in the household applied for is a reason to report it right away.
24 households at two apartments
SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, pays benefits on an EBT card, and it is paid per household. Prosecutors say the stolen identities were used to create 24 “households” in SNAP applications. All of them were listed at two single-family apartments in Providence, Rhode Island. The applications went to Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and together they drew about $440,000 in SNAP benefits.
Counterfeit passports and passport cards were submitted with the applications, the office says, and image metadata placed them at or near the restaurant. Vicioso also opened fraudulent SNAP accounts under his own information, mixed in with the accounts of the people whose identities were used. Searches turned up fraudulently obtained Massachusetts and Rhode Island EBT cards, fraudulent documents with a Providence address, SNAP-related mailings, and printed ledgers and handwritten lists of more than 100 identities.
The benefits went to the restaurant, prosecutors say. The EBT cards were used to buy bulk meat and other food at wholesalers, which stocked El Primo’s kitchen at no cost, and menu items were then sold for profit. Proceeds were allegedly wired to people in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, among other places.
Unemployment money on the same names
The case was not only about food stamps. The conspiracy also collected more than $700,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the emergency jobless program from the COVID years, using applications filed in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington and Nevada. Between April 2020 and December 2021, at least 29 identities were used in those unemployment applications, and every one of them listed El Primo Restaurant’s address as a residence.
Bank records show about $276,021 in fraudulent unemployment benefits deposited into accounts held in the names of the restaurant, Vicioso and other co-conspirators. Other payments went to prepaid cards. The investigation involved the Agriculture Department’s Inspector General, the Labor Department’s Inspector General, IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations, with help from the Social Security Administration’s Inspector General and several state and local agencies.
Reporting line in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts office says it set up a district-wide Benefit & Voter Fraud Team in March 2026. People can report suspected benefit fraud to that team at 1-855-722-6621. Nothing in the sentencing announcement describes how the first applications were spotted.
Reporting benefits no one asked for
Anyone who receives a notice, an EBT card or a benefit letter they never requested can report it. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General takes complaints about USDA programs, which include SNAP, through the complaint portal on its website, and the page says reports can be confidential or anonymous. In Massachusetts, the number above reaches the U.S. Attorney’s benefit fraud team. A call to the state agency that sent the notice is also a sensible first move.
Someone whose identity was used may also need a wider recovery plan. The Federal Trade Commission’s IdentityTheft.gov is the government site for reporting identity theft and getting a step-by-step recovery plan. Before filing, it helps to gather the notice itself, any envelope or case number, the date it arrived and a list of the benefit programs the household really is enrolled in.
The $1.1 million in restitution is the court’s order to repay what the agencies paid out. The sentencing announcement does not say how that money will be divided among them.
Names bought and written on 100 applications
Prosecutors say the defendants bought or used stolen personal information from people in six states and Puerto Rico, and kept lists of more than 100 identities. The release does not say how the details were taken. Incogni goes after the broker side of that exposure: it asks data brokers and people-search sites to remove a person’s details and keeps re-sending the requests. With fewer broker listings, fewer scam calls, texts and emails can follow.
Send removal requests to data brokers and people-search sites with Incogni →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
