White House blasts Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey for withholding SNAP recipient info as feds bust another fraud scheme

Tim Dunn, Boston Herald on Feb 3, 2026

Published in News & Features

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BOSTON — The White House is blasting Gov. Maura Healey for continuing to withhold personal information on Massachusetts SNAP recipients from the Trump Administration, as the latest SNAP fraud bust was just announced by federal authorities.

At the same time, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley announced an alleged SNAP fraud involving more than 100 stolen identities used to obtain over $1 million in SNAP and Public Unemployment Assistance benefits.

Healey was asked by the Herald if she should comply with the Trump Administration’s request to turn over the recipient data. This latest scheme comes just over a month after the feds busted a $7 million SNAP fraud scheme in Massachusetts, allegedly being run by two Haitian nationals.

“If it’s like the last one, that’s a case that was referred [by the state] to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for prosecution and investigation two years ago. So folks should understand that in various states, in Maine, in Massachusetts, you have state investigators’ offices, like an attorney general’s office, and frankly, starting within agencies like DTA that operate what’s called Program Integrity Programs, and their job is to monitor and identify potential fraud or things for investigation,” Healey said, avoiding answering whether she should provide the recipient data to the federal government.

“I don’t know what the attorney is announcing this morning, but if it’s like the one that she announced a few weeks ago, that was a case that actually started with the identification by a state agency, referred to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, and then referred to the U.S. Attorney’s office because they are actually the entity responsible for investigating and prosecuting that kind of fraud,” she said.

But Foley, in making her press conference announcing the SNAP fraud on Tuesday morning, said that there was no referral from Massachusetts that led to the investigation.

“The state of Rhode Island picked up on the fraud in June of 2024, when they identified SNAP-EBT applications for 117 people — all of whom purported to be living in just two apartments in Providence. Rhode Island also discovered that many of the victims’ identities also received SNAP benefits here in Massachusetts,” Foley said Tuesday, going on to say the main defendant, Raul Fernandes Visioso, a naturalized citizen from the Dominican Republic, allegedly carried out the scheme with two illegal immigrants and one green card holder.

“They also used the stolen identities of six juveniles to secure SNAP EBT benefits in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to purchase inventory for a restaurant in Massachusetts owned by the lead defendant,” Foley added.

The White House is responding to the news of the busted scheme, calling on Healey to provide the USDA with information on SNAP recipients to allow them to root out waste, fraud and abuse, adding that Healey is protecting fraudsters over constituents.

“The Trump Administration is aggressively rooting out fraud and abuse to ensure every hard-earned taxpayer dollar serves the people of Massachusetts – not predatory scammers. Governor Healey must stop protecting fraudsters and start putting her constituents first,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told the Herald in a written statement.

Foley says the defendants, a naturalized citizen from the Dominican Republic, two illegal immigrants and one green card holder, allegedly stole identities from U.S. citizens in several states, including New York, Florida, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. They also allegedly stole the identities of six juveniles.

“As a former Attorney General and as a prosecutor who regularly went after fraud, waste, and abuse, I support those efforts, and we want to make sure that all programs are maintained with integrity. Thank you. Thank you very much,” Healey said Tuesday.

The news of this latest scheme was uncovered just days after the state Auditor’s Office announced that for the fiscal year that ended June 30, its Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) had identified $11,952,288 in public benefits fraud, the largest amount of which was found within the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), totaling $4.1 million. Next highest was MassHealth, with investigators identifying $1.3 million worth of fraud.

Those findings came only a month after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in December busted an alleged $7 million SNAP fraud scheme conducted by two Haitian nationals.

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