A Dallas man was sentenced to a year and a half in prison on Monday after pleading guilty to scamming a U.S. government agency out of $2.3 million.
Michael Anthony Munson, 47, was indicted in 2018 and pleaded guilty in July 2022 to summer food service fraud, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
He was sentenced on August 14. He will also have to pay restitution, according to the press release.
According to a plea agreement, Munson admitted to knowingly inflating meal counts given by his foundation, Heloise Munson Foundation, to the summer food sites it serviced. The fraud went on for a period of seven years, from 2008 to 2014.
Munson also admitted to paying an individual $75,000 to fabricate invoices from a fictitious company, Janus Wholesale Food Inc. The fake invoices indicated that the foundation had purchased sufficient food, milk, and juice to support the number of meals it claimed to have provided.
At an administrative hearing in October 2013, Munson testified under oath that the foundation had made the purchases from Janus. In support of his claim, Munson submitted a fake affidavit listing the purchase of the food, milk, and juice that was supposedly from Janus’ sales director.
Munson claimed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program that his foundation provided more than 2.4 million meals to needy children, but, in reality, it provided less than one million. He kept the proceeds for the more than 1.4 million meals that were never provided.
Here in Dallas, there have been more than 1,670 reports of counterfeiting, forgery, and fraud offenses logged this year, according to the Dallas crime analytics overview dashboard.
As the Dallas Police Department works to combat and investigate crimes like these, it is hindered by a lack of staff. An analysis completed in 2015 determined that a city the size of Dallas needs roughly 4,000 police officers, but DPD currently only employs around 3,100.