SNAP Violation Letter

If your grocery store is licensed to accept EBT, then you should be in the market for a SNAP Violation Defense Attorney. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will send out snap Violation Letter in the event that they believe a EBT/SNAP participant has violated the regulations. In the letter, the Department will charge you with any number of violations of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). They may have also attached a stack of pages to the back of your snap Violation Letter that detail hundreds, if not thousands, of transactions which they believe to be evidence of any of several categories of snap violations.

What You Should Do Immediately

What you should do right after receiving a snap Violation Letter is call our offices for a free consultation at (813) 228-0658. A shop proprietor only has TEN (10) days to respond to the charge letter. If that time passes and you don’t respond, then the government is likely to suspend or revoke your ability to accept EBT.

For you to understand exactly what a SNAP Violation letter is charging you with, it’s important to understand what The snap Program is, and how it operates.

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Legal Scenario: What Would You Do?

Scenario

You own a small grocery store that accepts EBT payments, and you just received a SNAP violation letter from the USDA alleging that your store engaged in trafficking — exchanging SNAP benefits for cash rather than eligible food items. The letter states that your store faces permanent disqualification from the SNAP program and a civil money penalty of over $50,000.

Can the USDA really shut down my store's ability to accept EBT based on transaction patterns alone, and what can I do to fight this charge?

Attorney's Answer

Under 7 CFR § 278.6, the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service can permanently disqualify a store for trafficking violations, but you have the right to request an administrative review within 10 days of receiving the charge letter. The USDA typically builds its case using EIS transaction data showing suspicious patterns — such as unusually large purchases, rapid repeated transactions, or activity during off-hours — but these patterns alone do not prove intentional fraud, and a skilled attorney can challenge their statistical models. If the administrative review is unsuccessful, Section 14(a) of the Food and Nutrition Act, 7 U.S.C. § 2023, gives you the right to file a trial de novo in federal district court, where the court reviews the evidence independently rather than deferring to the USDA's findings. Acting quickly is critical because missing the response deadline can result in a default permanent disqualification with no further opportunity to contest it.

This is general information only. Contact us for advice specific to your situation.

The snap program

snap is short for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It’s purpose is to provide participants with a set value of monetary food benefits every month. These benefits are disbursed through an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) transaction card that resembles and works similarly to a traditional debit card. There are, however, a few extremely important distinctions as follows:

• The snap benefits on an EBT card are not intended for general use and spending, and
• They are not for use in cash-back services.