Centerville councilman indicted

July 25, 2008 10:28 am

— CENTERVILLE — A grand jury this week has indicted a Centerville city councilman and businessman on 13 charges, including food stamp fraud.
According to a copy of the indictment obtained by the Courier, Kris Erhardt Koestner is the owner of J&K Market; the Food and Nutrition Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, conducted surveillance and made purchases from the market.
According to the indictment, between March 3, 2005 and April 20, 2008, the FNS discovered the alleged “sale of ineligible items, providing cash to customers for their EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) benefits, and establishing ‘credit accounts’ which were funded and repaid with the customers’ EBT cards.”
Members of the FBI and FNS raided the market April 21 following reports of alleged fraudulent practices.
The grand jury charged Koestner with nine counts of food stamp fraud, alleging Koestner accepted food stamp benefits from different recipients for “ineligible items such as payments on a credit account, cash, alcohol and cigarettes, in a series of transactions which aggregate to more than $100.”
Koestner was also charged with three counts of tampering with a witness and one count of criminal forfeiture.
The next hearing in the case has been set for Aug. 6 in federal court.

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