Former market operator gets 33 extra months in prison

February 23, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A federal judge sentenced George Rafidi, former operator of the Breaden Market, a convenience store on Youngstown’s South Side, to 33 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the food-stamp program.

U.S. District Court Judge Sara Lioi in Akron imposed the prison time on Rafidi on Tuesday and ordered him to make nearly $2.8 million in restitution.

She made his prison term in this case consecutive to the 94-month prison term imposed on him in October 2015 by U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Gaughan.

In the earlier case, a jury convicted Rafidi, 62, of assaulting federal officers in an Oct. 8, 2014, armed confrontation at his Lordstown residence.

Rafidi twice pointed a .357-caliber revolver at the officers before a Lordstown detective fired several shots at him, according to a deputy U.S. marshal’s testimony.

Rafidi retreated into his home and emerged and surrendered shortly thereafter.

The confrontation occurred as federal agents served a search warrant at Rafidi’s residence for the food-stamp fraud investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Rafidi, who was awakened by the agents, was not hit by the gunfire.

A USDA agent dislocated his shoulder while jumping off Rafidi’s porch during the confrontation. Nobody else was hurt.

Last fall, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Rafidi’s conviction and sentence in that confrontation.

In the food-stamp case, in which 32 people were indicted, federal authorities said Rafidi was the leader of the conspiracy that operated between June 2010 and October 2014.

In that conspiracy, federal officials said food-stamp beneficiaries obtained cash and prohibited items such as alcohol and tobacco from the market in exchange for their benefits.

Rafidi fraudulently redeemed those benefits and caused money to be deposited into the market’s bank accounts, the indictment said.

Other defendants in the food-stamp fraud case got sentences ranging from two years’ probation to one year and one day in prison.