He Allegedly Pocketed $600,000 in SNAP Cash-for-Cards, Skipped Bail, and Ran for India.
The FBI's Most Wanted List Caught Him in 48 Hours.
Manjit Singh Bedi ran an Asian grocery store in Tacoma, Washington, authorized since February 2024 to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Federal prosecutors allege that between March 2024 and June 2025 he ran a cash-for-EBT scheme — swiping recipients’ benefit cards for phantom purchases, handing them cash instead of food, and keeping roughly half of every transaction for himself. The alleged total: at least $600,000.
After a federal grand jury indicted him on wire fraud and SNAP benefits fraud charges, a judge ordered Bedi to surrender his passport and stay inside Washington state pending trial. He didn’t. Sometime after his indictment, according to federal investigators, he crossed into Canada and made his way to India instead — a violation of his release conditions that produced a federal arrest warrant on May 21, 2026.
On September 3, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel put Bedi’s name on the bureau’s “Most Wanted Fraudsters” list. Indian authorities arrested him in Jalandhar, Punjab, roughly 48 hours later — the fifth capture under an initiative barely three months old.
- $600,000 — the alleged value of Bedi's cash-for-EBT scheme between March 2024 and June 2025 · Source: DOJ, USAO-WDWA
- $150,000 — the reward FBI Seattle is offering for information leading to Bedi's arrest and conviction · Source: FBI Seattle
- ~48 hours — the span between Bedi's Sept. 3 listing and his Sept. 5 arrest in Jalandhar, India · Source: Fox News
- 5 in 3 months — captures under Director Patel's Most Wanted Fraudsters initiative since its June 4, 2026 launch · Source: Fox News
- $2,000,000,000+ — the combined alleged fraud across all five captures, per Director Patel · Source: FBI
Bedi’s grocery store had been authorized to accept SNAP benefits since February 2024. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, federal investigators allege he began running a scheme that swapped food assistance for cash almost immediately. A SNAP recipient would hand over an EBT card; instead of ringing up groceries, Bedi allegedly swiped it for a phantom purchase, then handed the recipient cash back — keeping the difference for himself. The charging document lays out a specific example: charge $200 against the card, hand the recipient $100 in cash, keep the other $100.
Multiply that pattern across fifteen months, prosecutors allege, and it added up to at least $600,000 diverted from a program designed to put food on the table for low-income households — not cash in a grocer’s register. Bedi is charged with wire fraud and SNAP benefits fraud. He has not been convicted, and the underlying allegations remain exactly that: allegations investigators say the evidence supports, not a proven case. The FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the USDA Office of Inspector General jointly investigated the case.
“These benefits are intended to help vulnerable individuals make ends meet but, instead of putting food on their tables, taxpayer money lost to benefits fraud goes to the personal benefit of unscrupulous criminals.”
W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Seattle
A grand jury’s indictment is not a conviction, and Bedi was released to await trial under conditions federal magistrates set for exactly this kind of case: surrender your passport, stay inside the state, don’t disappear. He didn’t comply. At some point after his indictment, according to federal investigators, Bedi instead crossed into Canada and made his way to India — outside the reach of the conditions a judge had set and, for more than a year, outside the reach of the FBI.
The violation of his release conditions produced a separate, more straightforward filing than the fraud charges still pending against him. On May 21, 2026, a federal arrest warrant was issued for violating the terms of his pretrial release — the filing that turned a fraud case into a fugitive case, and put Bedi on the same list as America’s most-wanted financial fugitives rather than simply on a trial docket.
For months after that, the case sat where a lot of fugitive cases sit: an indicted defendant, an active warrant, and a suspect believed to be somewhere in India, well outside routine U.S. law enforcement reach. What changed the outcome wasn’t new evidence in the SNAP case. It was a separate federal initiative, launched three months earlier for an entirely different purpose — hunting down major fraud fugitives the government had already lost track of.
FBI Director Kash Patel launched the bureau’s “Most Wanted Fraudsters” list on June 4, 2026 — modeled on the classic Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, but built specifically around major financial-crime fugitives who had left the country rather than face trial. On September 3, 2026, Patel added three new names to it: Bedi, Onur Simsek, and Bernhard Eugen Fritsch. FBI Seattle announced a $150,000 reward for information leading to Bedi’s arrest and conviction.
The list worked fast. On September 5, 2026 — roughly 48 hours after his name went up — Indian authorities arrested Bedi in Jalandhar, Punjab. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald tied the arrest directly to the reach of the initiative: “As this arrest in India shows, the Justice Department’s reach extends to every corner of the planet.” Extradition efforts are ongoing; as of the latest reporting, Bedi remained in Indian custody and had not yet been returned to the United States.
Bedi is the fifth capture under Patel’s initiative in roughly three months — and, at $600,000, easily its smallest alleged fraud. The four before him ran far larger. Said Abdullahi Ereg, a former Minneapolis grocery owner accused of siphoning more than $4,200,000 from pandemic-era Child Nutrition Program funds, surrendered. Herbert Leon Kimble, accused of running a $1,200,000,000 Medicare and telemedicine fraud conspiracy, was captured in the Philippines. Khalid Ahmed Satary, accused of a $547,000,000 genetic-testing Medicare fraud scheme, was captured overseas. Elaine Escoe, accused of siphoning more than $32,000,000 from COVID-relief programs while living under a fake identity — “Harley Newman” — was captured in Jamaica.
“Five Most Wanted Fraudsters captured in just three months is a historic success for this initiative.”
FBI Director Kash Patel
Patel put the combined total at more than $2,000,000,000 in alleged fraud and nearly 4,000 combined days the five fugitives spent on the run before capture. “The days of taking advantage of American taxpayers without consequence are over,” he said. Addressing Bedi’s arrest specifically, Patel wrote on X that Bedi “was just arrested in India and was believed to have fled there sometime last year. The FBI is actively working to secure his return to the United States.”
Manjit Singh Bedi — Tacoma, WA grocery store owner charged with wire fraud and SNAP benefits fraud; arrested in Jalandhar, Punjab after fleeing pretrial release.
FBI Director Kash Patel — launched the Most Wanted Fraudsters initiative June 4, 2026; added Bedi to it Sept. 3, 2026.
Colin M. McDonald — Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice.
W. Mike Herrington — Special Agent in Charge, FBI Seattle field office.
Investigating agencies — FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, USDA Office of Inspector General.
Two things distinguish the Bedi case from the four captures before it. It is by far the smallest dollar figure — $600,000 against a group whose average alleged fraud runs well into nine figures. And it is the case where flight, not the underlying fraud, did the most damage to the defendant: given a chance to stay and fight the charges, Bedi chose to run, and it took a federal wanted list barely three months old — and less than 48 hours after his name went up — to put the case back within reach of American courts. Extradition, not conviction, is the next milestone, and as of the latest reporting Bedi is still in India.
