Spanaway company accused of food stamp fraud

The Iowa Steak Company, of Spanaway, was raided Thursday night by federal inspectors and police looking for evidence of food stamp fraud.

Federal law enforcement officials reported that truck drivers working for the Iowa Steak Company allegedly bought food stamp E-B-T cards for half price from undercover officers. They then traded their cards in for the full cash value.

In essence, faked transactions made with the cards were made to appear legitimate so that individuals could get cash instead of food.

Iowa Steak managers stated that the employees that have been targeted had been terminated several months earlier. According to Iowa Steak, the company severed ties with the former employees for reasons unrelated to the E-B-T fraud investigation.

Federal authorities are now investigating to see whether or not managers at Iowa Steak knew about the fraud and may have participated in criminal acts.

Managers at the company, however, made public statements denying that the organization had any criminal ties to the workers who had misused the food stamp E-B-T cards.

“Every business has a couple bad seeds, or a bad seed. Somebody’s gotten fired before, somebody’s done something wrong. Unfortunately this just happens to go to the federal level and when these guys get their day in court they can explain what happened,” manager Dennis Romaneski told KING-5 news.

Iowa Steak officials say they are cooperating with investigators.

No charges have been filed against the company since the raid on June 1.