Eleven Philadelphia business owners were charged in connection with a fraud scheme involving Pennsylvania’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), according to Attorney General Dave Sunday. On Thursday, the attorney general announced felony charges agains t 11 owners of grocery and convenience stores who are accused of submitting more than $1 million in fraudulent reimbursement requests and receiving nearly $1 million from the WIC program. “These business owners, for years, intentionally defrauded a state program designed to promote wellness for mothers and their children,” Sunday said. “This type of criminal activity doesn’t just victimize taxpayers by defrauding the government, it hurts the women and children who rely on the services programs like WIC provide.” Officials said agents inspected thousands of receipts and performed audits that revealed paperwork had been forged and fabricated between 2021 and 2025. WIC vendors are required to submit invoices from approved distributors for purchases of food and infant formula — products they then provide at their stores to WIC recipients. According to prosecutors, in all, agents identified nearly 10,000 fraudulent reimbursement requests. Nearly 9,000 of those requests were fulfilled, resulting in $985,000 in total losses to the state, according to officials. The defendants and their respective businesses received the following reimbursement totals based on false claims, according to prosecutors: Felix Sosa (El Paisano Express Food): $342,183.94 Musa Barry (Uncle Musa Grocery): $226,557.88 Business owned by an individual not yet in custody: $105,880.04 Ramon Fernandez (Compare Save Supermarket): $70,907.09 Carmen Luciano (Carmen Grocery, Inc): $60,922.44 Margarita Collado (Kendra Mini Market): $55,982.66 Business owned by an individual not yet in custody: $42,834.16 Amaury Espinal Gomez (Liberty Mini Market, Inc.): $40,120.61 Raquel De La Cruz and Patxi De La Cruz (co-owners of Tioga Food Market 1 Inc): $39,864.83 Francisco Garcia (Garcia Super Deli Market): $773.38 The business owners are facing felony counts of theft by deception, forgery and tampering with public records. According to Sunday, nine of the 11 people charged were taken into custody and arraigned on Wednesday, Sept. 30. ...read more read less