A Washington State grocery store owner accused of draining more than $600,000 from the federal food assistance program is back on American soil. Manjit Singh Bedi, one of the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters, was arrested in India and returned to the United States to face the charges. His case is a warning about what happens when taxpayer dollars meant for hungry families are treated like a personal cash machine.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced Thursday that Bedi was back in the country. Bedi was arrested in September in the Punjab region of India, and the FBI worked with Indian authorities to bring him home. Patel called his return another milestone for the bureau’s fugitive recovery initiative.
The Most Wanted Fraudsters program is only about three months old, and it is already delivering results. Patel says six people on the list have now been captured since it launched. When Bedi was first arrested, he was the fifth.
Bedi, 64, of Kent, Washington, is an Indian-born naturalized American citizen. He ran the Asian Grocery Store in Tacoma, which he and his wife opened in May 2023. The store was authorized to accept SNAP benefits in February 2024.
Federal prosecutors say what happened next had little to do with groceries. According to the indictment, beginning in March 2024, Bedi struck deals with SNAP recipients to hand over cash in exchange for the money loaded on their electronic benefits cards. The scheme allegedly ran until June 2025.
The math was simple, and prosecutors say it was brazen. In one example from the case, Bedi would charge $200 against a recipient’s card, hand over $100 in cash, and keep the other $100. Prosecutors allege he pocketed at least $600,000 this way for food that was never actually sold.
Every one of those transactions was allegedly a lie. The government paid out for supposed groceries that never changed hands. Investigators say the benefits were never used to buy eligible food items, as the program intends.
The Department of Justice indicted Bedi on wire fraud and SNAP benefit fraud charges. He pleaded not guilty at his April 22 court appearance in Tacoma. A trial was scheduled for June 22.
Here is where the story takes its turn. Because Bedi had no criminal history, he was allowed to appear in court without being taken into custody. He was ordered to surrender his passport and to stay in Washington State.
He did not stay. According to the FBI, Bedi drove to Canada and then fled to India. A federal arrest warrant was issued on May 21.
That decision turned a serious fraud case into a fugitive manhunt. The FBI added him to its Most Wanted Fraudsters list and offered a reward of up to $150,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction. Agents also reached out to his family, including his son, urging them to encourage him to come back and face the charges.
The investigation moved fast. FBI officials said they had a pretty good idea of where in Punjab Bedi was hiding, and they were working with Indian authorities. Punjab Police arrested him in Jalandhar just hours after the FBI publicly announced his placement on the list.
That speed is a credit to the FBI under Patel’s leadership and to the cooperation of law enforcement overseas. A man who thought a plane ticket was an escape plan learned that the long arm of American law reaches a long way. For would-be fraudsters, the message is that running does not work.
Now Bedi is back in Washington State to answer for the allegations. He is charged with six counts of wire fraud, along with SNAP benefit fraud. Each of those offenses carries up to twenty years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
It is important to note that these are allegations. Bedi has pleaded not guilty, and the charges in the indictment have yet to be proven in court. Every defendant is entitled to a fair trial.
But the stakes for the public are not in doubt. Prosecutors have said every assistance dollar lost to fraud is a dollar that could be feeding hungry children. That is the true cost of schemes like this one, because the money stolen is money taken from families who depend on it.
The administration has made rooting out this kind of abuse a priority. The Department of Justice has created a National Fraud Enforcement Division whose mission is to investigate and prosecute those who steal or misuse taxpayer dollars. That effort supports the President’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance.
