A US-based Guyanese has been convicted of welfare fraud and related offences after a jury found that she fraudulently obtained more than US$28,000 in public assistance benefits by concealing her income and household circumstances.
According to a release from Schenectady County District Attorney Robert M. Carney, Sonia Rajpaul, 31, who media reports indicate is of Guyanese descent, of Rotterdam, New York, was on May 22 found guilty by a Schenectady County jury following a five-day trial.
Rajpaul was convicted on one count each of third-degree grand larceny and third-degree welfare fraud, two counts of first-degree perjury and 10 counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. She was acquitted on one count of offering a false instrument for filing.
The prosecution’s case established that Rajpaul intentionally misrepresented her income and household composition when applying for and recertifying benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP).
Evidence presented during the trial showed that in March 2019, Rajpaul applied for SNAP benefits and subsequently recertified her eligibility approximately every six months. Prosecutors said that between 2019 and November 2023, she failed to disclose income earned from a cleaning business and did not report that she was living with her husband or include his income on the applications.
By 2023, Rajpaul was receiving US$740 per month in SNAP benefits, which prosecutors said she would not have qualified for had she accurately reported her financial circumstances.
The court also heard that investigators from the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Department, the Department of Social Services and the District Attorney’s Office executed a search warrant at the home Rajpaul shared with her husband in Rotterdam. Investigators found the couple living together and discovered that they also owned a second property that was being rented out. The rental income had not been reported to authorities.
After charges were laid, Rajpaul appeared before a grand jury on May 2, 2024, where prosecutors said she falsely testified under oath that she did not have a joint bank account with her husband, had no access to his income and had never received money from their jointly owned cleaning business.
However, evidence presented at trial showed that the couple shared three joint bank accounts and that Rajpaul had received and signed cheques from the cleaning business.
Prosecutors said the fraudulent scheme resulted in Rajpaul receiving US$28,323.22 in SNAP and HEAP benefits to which she was not entitled.
Rajpaul is scheduled to be sentenced on August 7. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Leah Hoover, while Rajpaul was represented by attorney Adam Parisi.
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