{"id":31597,"date":"2025-07-02T03:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/31597\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T03:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:54:09","slug":"houston-duo-accused-of-fraudulently-using-75k-of-others-snap-benefits-to-run-store-out-of-apartment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/31597\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston duo accused of fraudulently using $75K of others SNAP benefits to run store out of apartment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 A man and woman are wanted, accused of a scheme where they used other people\u2019s SNAP benefits to purchase items for a store they were running out of their apartment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Joel Pizano and Maria Delgado are charged with supplemental nutrition assistance program electronic violation. The two were charged following an investigation by the Texas Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Court documents allege the two had been conducting the scheme since January 2019. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">On Oct. 14, 2024, authorities were looking through EBT transaction records and found someone used an EBT card to make three purchases at a Sam\u2019s Club. Two $650 charges and one $600 charge was found on the card. Law enforcement found through video footage the items purchased were bulk quantities of drinks, chips, and other snacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">On Oct. 24, 2024, it was discovered the same EBT card was used to again make bulk purchases of various drinks and snacks. Authorities were able to obtain information on the membership used to make the purchases. It was registered to Pizano. Delgado and another person were also listed on the membership. But the EBT card used to make the purchases was registered to someone different from the two.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Law enforcement was also unable to find any records of any businesses the two may have had, according to court records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">In Jan. 2025, law enforcement reviewed recent EBT transactions and found the same card had been utilized in November, December, and January to again make bulk purchases. Camera footage from the Sam\u2019s Club shows Pizano and Delgado making the purchases. The same thing happened again in March.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Through a subpoena, authorities were able to get the purchase history from Pizano\u2019s membership at Sam\u2019s Club and found over a six-year period, 17 different EBT cards were fraudulently used to make nearly $75,000 in purchases, according to court records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The woman whose EBT card had been being used was interviewed where she told authorities she sold Pizano and Delgado her EBT card. She told investigators she sold the card for money to buy non-food related items and the two had given her between $200-$300 for the card. She also told investigators the two ran a store out of their apartment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Investigators visited the apartment listed to the two and when Delgado answered the door, she asked Pizano to come outside the apartment. Investigators saw a sales rack in the living room stocked with various snacks, according to the records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The records say during an interview, Pizano was mostly silent, but Delgado allegedly admitted to people in their apartment complex starting to sell them their benefits, but said she didn\u2019t really know them. She also denied making a profit from the exchange, but said they may occasionally buy a package of meat for themselves, according to the documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Delgado also allegedly told investigators they used the EBT benefits that didn\u2019t belong to them to buy items and then sell them out of their apartment, the documents say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The documents also say during the interview, two young girls approached Pizano and Delgado wanting to buy something, but they were turned away. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Charges have been accepted against the two, but they are not in custody.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 A man and woman are wanted, accused of a scheme where they used other people\u2019s SNAP&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4219,820,4345,7167,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-31597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-fraud","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-snap-benefits","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114781622508337560","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}