According to a court affidavit, Nadine Jean Baptiste, age 57, of Warrick, Rhode Island, and her daughter, Octavia Jean Baptiste, 27, fraudulently accessed hundreds of EBT cards, and spent more than $191,000.

Nadine began her  employment with the State of Rhode Island in 2013. Prior to her arrest and subsequent termination, she served as a principal clerk at the Rhode Island DHS Office. They are accused of using their positions at DHS to steal people’s personal information to access their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and use them to buy groceries.

In September 2023, the Office if Internal Audit received complaints from SNAP recipients via the Internal Audit Fraud Hotline alleging they did not receive EBT cards issued to them which are commonly mailed to the address of the recipient or obtained in-person from a DHS office in the case of a homeless recipient. An investigation began and
OIA determined that the brother of a complainant, was employed as a customer service aide under the supervision of Baptiste at the Rhode Island DHS Office. He unlawfully used multiple EBT cards on multiple occasions in 2023. OIA documented these activities using surveillance video. One of the EBT cards he conducted a telephonic balance inquiry on was printed by Baptiste, which made her a person of interest. As a result of the state internal investigation, that customer service aide, was terminated from employment with RI DHS in June 2024.

Investigators turned their focus on Baptiste next. The affidavit alleges that from January 2020 to July 2024, Nadine accessed the personal information of SNAP recipients to check EBT card balances and change PINs to use the cards. She allegedly made roughly 1,817 phone inquiries on 408 EBT cards, while Octavia made more than 300 balance inquiries on about 95 cards. Surveillance footage from June to August of 2024 showed Nadine making more than $2,000 in SNAP purchases using 16 different EBT cards at various stores. Nadine was arrested on September 10, 2024. A warrant was issued for Octavia and she was arrested later. They are facing federal charges of aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, illegal acquisition or use of SNAP benefits, and conspiracy.