The owner of a Hartford grocery has been arrested and charged with food-stamp fraud, federal prosecutors say.
Salih Kaya, 53, of West Hartford, was arrested Wednesday after being indicted on charges that his Green Apple Market at 264 Farmington Ave. from July 1, 2008 to May 2014 illegally exchanged cash and other ineligible items for food stamps, the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Kaya is free on $25,000 bond, prosecutors said. He could not be immediately reached Friday.
According to investigators, a store Green Market’s size normally should do about $60,000 a year in sales. Instead, Kaya’s market generated more than $2.8 million in sales in a three-year period, they said.
Kaya faces a maximum 20 years in prison if convicted of defrauding the federal food-stamp program known as the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP.
