EAST ST. LOUIS – Another State Street store lost its food stamp license and sued the U.S. Agriculture Department to get it back.
Munji and Adam Abdeljabbar, owners of Gas Mart at 83rd Street, challenged the store’s permanent disqualification in district court on July 14.
The department disqualified Gas Mart in June, alleging unusually large transactions on benefit cards and transactions on the same card in short time frames.
The department claimed it found 118 repeat transactions totaling $8,977.79.
In March, Fawaz Farah of Express Stop at 22nd Street sued the department after it accused him of trafficking and permanently disqualified him.
In Gas Mart’s complaint, Joseph Goff of the Armstrong Teasdale firm argues that the department didn’t allege that cash was given in exchange for benefits.
He claims Gas Mart is the only store in the area offering eligible food after 9 p.m. and that disqualification was a great hardship to a concentrated population with limited shopping opportunities.
He claims Gas Mart implemented an effective compliance policy.
The court clerk assigned Chief District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel.
In the Express Stop action, Farah moved to stay disqualification in June.
His counsel Jay Kanzler claims Farah demonstrated with documents and testimony that transactions were legitimate.
He claims the store would close prior to any court decision on the merits.
He claims that since disqualification, Express Stop’s revenues fell 65 percent.
He claims the department’s standard of review all but guaranteed permanent disqualification for small convenience and grocery stores.
He claims the department doesn’t investigate larger stores that constituted a majority of redemptions.
He claims the department permanently disqualified 1,041 convenience stores and small groceries in 2019, and not a single supermarket.
He claims the department targeted Farah because of his Palestinian origin.
He claims Express Stop prepares food in a kitchen at prices obviously higher than at stores that doesn’t offer the products.
He claims immigrants open retail operations where Sam’s, Wal-Mart, and Walgreens refuse to go.
Assistant U.S. attorney Adam Hanna responded that it takes only one instance of trafficking to establish violation.
He argued that retailers are incidental beneficiaries of the program.
He claimsa 65 percent sales decline wasn’t irreparable harm.
Magistrate Judge Mark Beatty has set a hearing for Farah on Aug. 4.
In an interview on July 24, Farah said, “What are people supposed to do, drive all the way to O’Fallon?
“I’m going to make sure that when food stamps come back I’ll make a lot of money. I’m good in business.”