9 Convenience Store Workers, 1 Cop, Defrauded WIC Checks: Feds

TINLEY PARK, IL — Several workers and owners of Chicago-area convenience stores, including a Chicago police officer, are facing federal fraud charges after authorities said the individuals participated in a scheme to redeem checks from a low-income food program for women and children.

According to the U.S. District Court in Chicago, the indictment includes 16 counts ranging from fraud to failing to file corporate tax returns. Prosecutors said the group would illegally cash in checks from the Women, Infants and Children program. The WIC program is a federal initiative to give new mothers and families low-cost food and formula.

The group would knowingly let customers buy items with their WIC checks that were not eligible under the program, which only covers specific brands and amounts of food. Of the nine stores identified, officials said many made up to a million dollars in WIC checks.

Local residents facing fraud charges are 27-year-old Ehab Khraiwish of Tinley Park, who owns Mercado La Estrella in Elgin; 39-year-old Ersely Arita-Mejia of Arlington Heights, a worker at Star Mini Market in Mt. Prospect; and 29-year-old Marisol Zavala of McHenry, a worker at an unidentified convenience store in Elgin.

Hassan Abdellatif, 33, a Chicago police officer, was also charged with fraud and knowingly failing to file two years of corporate tax returns for one of two stores he owns in the city.

The four made an appearance in federal court Wednesday. Authorities have not yet responded to questions on if bail was set for any of the accused.

Agents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture assisted in filing the charges, Attorney John Lausch, Jr. said.