FBI puts India-born man on most wanted fraudsters list
The FBI has placed India-born U.S. citizen Manjit Singh Bedi on its most wanted list for allegedly defrauding the government of $600,000 through a SNAP benefits scheme. Bedi, who operated a grocery store in Washington, fled to India after being charged with wire fraud.
Why it matters
The case highlights international cooperation challenges in prosecuting financial crimes and the vulnerability of government social benefit programs to fraud.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has added India-born Manjit Singh Bedi to its list of most wanted fraudsters for his alleged involvement in irregularities in the U.S. government’s benefits scheme.
According to the FBI, Bedi operated a small grocery store in Tacoma, Washington, and swiped customers’ government benefits cards to give them cash instead of food under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP).
Instead of selling food to participants, Bedi allegedly swiped their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards and gave them cash, keeping half of the proceeds for himself, the FBI said on Thursday (September 4, 2026). The FBI claimed that Bedi, a naturalised U.S. citizen, defrauded the U.S. government of at least $6 lakh between March 2024 and June 2025.
Bedi operated a small grocery store in Tacoma called Asian Grocery Store. He purportedly sold food to SNAP participants using their EBT cards.
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