Vance's Fraud Task Force Set to Announce Charges Against 40-Plus Defendants in Alleged $40 Million SNAP Scheme

Vice President JD Vance is expected to announce criminal charges today against more than 40 people in an alleged $40 million food-assistance fraud scheme.

Fox News Digital says it learned of the plan first. A source familiar with the charges told Fox that Vance will reveal them as part of the administration's continued crackdown on fraud. We have not seen the charging documents, and the details of the alleged scheme were not in the report we read. Charges are allegations, not convictions.

The running total. Fox says the new case brings the SNAP fraud found by Vance's anti-fraud task force to $641 million. SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which loads monthly benefits onto cards used at authorized grocery retailers. According to the source, more than 1,000 retailers have been banned from the program for violations that include criminal trafficking of benefits. Nearly 5,000 others have been suspended and fined a combined $44 million for administrative violations.

The tools. The source says the administration has destroyed more than 2,200 illegal point-of-sale devices and disabled more than 2,000 compromised retailer authorization numbers. Officials estimate those steps stopped more than $5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions. That is an official estimate relayed through a source, and Fox does not say how it was calculated.

The bigger claim. The task force reports $260.7 billion in fraud uncovered since President Trump took office, and $72 billion in fraud stopped on an annualized basis. These are the administration's figures. We did not check them.

The limit. Charges do not guarantee the government will recover the money. In an August interview with Fox News Digital, Vance said much of it has already been spent. "Getting money back is very hard," he said. "What we've done most effectively is actually just stop the money from going out the door in the first place, because that's the only real way to ensure the American people don't lose it."

The timing. The news comes a day after Vance and independent journalist Nick Shirley joined Trump in the Oval Office to announce a program that pays tipsters. Under the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, Trump said, qualifying tipsters would get a 1% commission, subject to applicable laws and rules. "If you turn somebody in and you, let's say report, and you find $1 billion, we are giving a commission to that person of 1%," he said.

Fox also notes that Shirley's reporting at the end of last year described a network of Minnesota daycare centers it alleged were fraudulent, which prompted the administration's response in the Twin Cities. We did not independently review those claims.