A senior agent for the US Department of Agriculture’s office in Cleveland has been sentenced to six months in prison for stealing nearly US$50,000 in evidence used in undercover investigations that targeted grocery stores for food stamp fraud.
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Anthony Punka, told US District Judge Lesley Wells yesterday [Monday] that he stole federal money designated for investigations to cover years of binge credit card spending. Wells sentenced Punka to six months in prison and six months in home detention with electronic monitoring. She ordered him to pay back the money that he stole and more than US$11,000 for the cost of housing him in prison.
Punka pleaded guilty in April to taking money used in undercover investigations that targeted Cleveland grocery stores. He worked on a task force made up of local police and federal agents who tracked food stamp fraud, reported the Associated Press.
