New Delhi: Over a month after Punjab Police arrested Manjit Singh Bedi—one of ‘FBI’s Most Wanted fraudsters’—he was taken to the United States from India Wednesday.
Bedi was allegedly involved in a benefits fraud scheme that defrauded the US government of at least $600,000. On 4 September, he was taken into custody in connection with a separate case registered in May this year. This was just hours after the FBI had put him on its ‘Most Wanted’ list.
Confirming the extradition Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X, “This marks yet another significant moment for the historic FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters program—Bedi is one of six Most Wanted Fraudsters captured since the creation of the new list three months ago—and yet another high value target captured overseas—in a group responsible for a combined over $2 billion in fraud and on the run for almost 4,000 days collectively prior to arrest.”
Bedi is charged with defrauding the US of at least $600k in SNAP funds around 2024-2025, and “now will face justice for his alleged crimes”, Patel added.
“Over the past 20 months, we’ve secured 260 extraditions and removals—an increase of more than 70% compared to the previous 20-month period,” he further wrote.
This is the latest in an unprecedented stretch of success in bringing high-value targets back to the United States through strong partnerships with our foreign law enforcement counterparts.
Over the past 20 months, we’ve secured 260 extraditions and removals — an increase of… https://t.co/v5YK70oYJf
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) October 15, 2026
In a press conference, FBI (Seattle) Special Agent in Charge Mike Herrington said, “There is not a place in the world where the FBI’s wanted posters cannot reach. And Bedi’s wanted poster quickly reached people who were able to report where he was located in India.”
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Who is Manjit Singh Bedi?
Originally from Jalandhar district, Manjeet Singh Bedi, a naturalised US citizen, ran a small grocery store in Tacoma, Washington, and had returned to India in April.
In September, he was booked by Punjab Police under provisions of Punjab Travel Professionals’ Regulation (PTPR) Act, which deals with illegal immigration, along with Sections 318 (4) (cheating) and 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The FBI had offered a reward of up to $150,000 for information on Bedi, and alleged he had fled to India via Canada this year.
Federal prosecutors allege Bedi swiped customers’ electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards, but gave them cash instead of food for a year between March 2024 and June 2025.
“Bedi operated a small grocery store in Tacoma, Washington, called Asian Grocery Store. He purportedly sold food to participants of the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) through their EBT cards. However, instead of selling participants food, Bedi is alleged to have swiped their cards and given them cash, keeping half of the proceeds for himself,” read an FBI statement from last month.
After being indicted for wire fraud and SNAP benefits fraud in April this year, Bedi was allowed to appear in court without being arrested. He was ordered to give up his passport and remain in Washington state. However, according to the FBI, Bedi drove across the border to Canada and then fled to India.
On 21 May, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Bedi in the United States District Court, Western District of Washington, Tacoma after he was charged with Violations of Conditions of Supervision.
What is SNAP?
According to the indictment, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federally funded food assistance programme administered by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
It is designed to provide nutritious foods to low-income families at subsidised prices using federal tax dollars. The USDA authorises over 250,000 retailers, ranging from local bodegas to large supermarket chains, to accept and redeem SNAP benefits.
The FNS authorises certain grocery retail stores to accept SNAP EBT cards from authorised SNAP recipients to pay for eligible food items. When the recipient’s card is swiped through an EBT terminal at an authorised retailer, the recipient is prompted to enter a personal identification number (PIN) to access his or her SNAP benefit funds, an amount that replenishes monthly.
SNAP verifies the PIN, and authorises or denies the transaction, depending on the balance in the recipient’s account. If the transaction is approved, the recipient’s SNAP account is debited for the amount of the purchase, and the SNAP funds are transferred to the retailer’s bank account to pay for the groceries.
So, when a SNAP recipient uses an EBT card to redeem benefits in Washington state, the transaction causes an interstate wire communication originating in Washington, and travelling to a computer server in another state.
Participants are required to comply with SNAP rules that ensure it serves its purpose of delivering food to needy families. For example, the rules prohibit retailers from exchanging SNAP benefits for cash or engaging in schemes to defraud the programme.
The ‘fraud’
The indictment against Bedi alleged, “Beginning on March 1, 2024, and continuing through on or about June 12, 2025, in Pierce County, within the Western District of Washington, Manjit Bedi, together with others known and unknown, devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud the United States Department of Agriculture, and obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, promises, and the concealment of material facts.”
It added that the scheme involved Bedi converting SNAP funds for his own use through fraudulent transactions that made it appear to the USDA that a SNAP recipient had purchased groceries from Asian Grocery Store, when no eligible groceries had actually been sold. “The transactions caused the SNAP program to pay Bedi for the supposed groceries. For each such fraudulent occurrence, Bedi would split the proceeds with the SNAP recipient.”
The indictment further said that Bedi and his wife had opened the store on 1 May, 2023. They applied to SNAP later that year, and the FNS authorised the store to accept programme benefits beginning 22 February, 2024.
“Bedi and SNAP recipients entered into agreements under which the SNAP recipient agreed to provide Bedi with his or her EBT card and PIN. BEDI agreed to pay the SNAP recipient a portion of the value of the benefits remaining on the EBT card. For example, a recipient might provide Bedi with an EBT card loaded with $200 in benefits in return for a $100 cash payment from Bedi to the recipient,” it says.
Bedi allegedly processed false grocery sale transactions using Asian Grocery Store’s POS terminal. He then used the recipients’ SNAP EBT benefits cards to “pay for” the groceries, making it appear to FNS that the SNAP recipient had used the EBT card to purchase real groceries from the store.
This caused FNS to debit the SNAP recipients’ accounts and transfer SNAP funds to the store’s bank account in the amount of the transaction.
“Each of these transactions caused and relied upon an interstate wire signal that authorised electronic payments from the SNAP program to the Asian Grocery Store’s bank account,” the indictment said. “Instead of providing the SNAP recipient with groceries as represented to FNS, Bedi gave the cardholder an agreed-upon amount of cash. For each occurrence, Bedi typically profited at a rate of 50 cents on each dollar of SNAP benefits redeemed.”
Bedi allegedly knew the SNAP benefits were not actually being redeemed to purchase eligible food items, and he intended to deceive and defraud the programme, the indictment added.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)