Spyros Stanley, who owned a bar in Charleston, West Virginia, purchased $23,000 worth of food stamps for a fraction of their value from welfare recipients and crack cocaine dealers. Stanley was buying the stamps to purchase food for himself and his bar.

In Hampton, Virginia, Lazaro Sotolongo sold crack for food stamps at 50 cents on the dollar. He converted the food stamps to cash by selling them to unscrupulous authorized retailers. Over three years he took in more than $1 million.

An art aficionado in Albuquerque owned a general store authorized by the Department of Agriculture to accept food stamps. But instead of milk or eggs, he gave customers cash at 30 to 50 cents on the dollar for their stamps. Then he redeemed them at the bank for their face value. With his profits, he bought $35,000 worth of stolen art.

In Detroit, the department of social services sent $26,000 in food stamps to Mae Duncan, but she didn't exist. The name was one of 26 invented by Patricia Allen, a 39-year-old social worker. Over a nine-year period, she collected more than $221,000 worth of food stamps.

After Dennie Lyons of New Orleans was caught counterfeiting more than $127,000 worth of stamps to sell around the country, he was sentenced to four years in prison, and his wife was given five years' probation for aiding him. Soon after her indictment, she was admitted to the food stamp program.

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