A Taylorsville market co-owner is facing a felony charge after investigators say he spent months running cash-for-benefits transactions out of his store instead of selling groceries. Besmullah Yaqoobi, 45, was charged Monday in 3rd District Court with public assistance fraud by a provider, a second-degree felony.
Yaqoobi was co-owner of the Sahara Halal Market near 4100 South Redwood Road in Taylorsville, which has since closed, according to KSL News. Prosecutors allege Yaqoobi exchanged checks for EBT transactions without customers ever purchasing or receiving the items they rang up — a practice federal regulators classify as trafficking. EBT, the electronic benefits transfer card, is used as a debit card designed to replace the old paper food stamps system.
A Years-Long Investigation Unfolds
The case traces back to 2023, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture began a joint investigation with the Taylorsville Police Department into Sahara Market, the outlet reports. Investigators then conducted surveillance on the store between January and April 2024, watching the pattern play out in person.
During that surveillance window, investigators observed 15 to 20 people enter the market and make transactions using EBT cards totaling more than $5,400, with many leaving the store shortly afterward carrying little to no merchandise, according to the same report. That pattern reportedly prompted investigators to send undercover informants into the store to document the exchanges directly.
Undercover Buys Detail the Alleged Scheme
In July 2024, an informant processed two EBT transactions at the market totaling $374. Rather than receiving the items rung up, the informant was offered a personal check instead of $100 in cash back, and Yaqoobi ultimately wrote the informant a check for $315 — with no items purchased or received from either transaction, per the report.
The pattern reportedly repeated itself a month later. In August 2024, Yaqoobi rang up several items totaling a little over $287 for another informant, but the informant did not leave with any of the items allegedly purchased. Instead, Yaqoobi provided the informant with a check for $250, the station notes.
A Contract Violation and a Prior Dismissed Case
Yaqoobi had signed a U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutritional Services contract on behalf of Sahara Market, one that explicitly prohibited trading cash in exchange for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The USDA's own retailer guidance is blunt on the subject: “It is against the law to give customers cash for SNAP EBT benefits. This is trafficking,” according to the USDA.
This isn't the first time Yaqoobi has faced this kind of allegation. He and his partner were charged with a similar crime in 2025, but that case was later dismissed in lieu of pending charges from the Utah Attorney General's Office filed that same week, according to court documents cited by the report.
