Wauwatosa Woman Charged in Connection to Foodshare Fraud Ring

A 47-year-old Wauwatosa woman has been charged with her role in a massive Foodshare fraud ring she and two other women ran out of a Milwaukee Enrollment Services (MILES) Center.

Rosa E. Ordonez was charged Wednesday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with one count of theft of more than $10,000 by fraud and one count of more than $5,000 in theft via Foodshare fraud. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison and $50,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint:

Ordonez and the other women worked as economic support specialists in the MILES Center office, 1220 W. Vliet St. Part of their jobs was enrolling people in FoodShare Wisconsin, a state nutrition program designed to ensure that all Wisconsin families have access to adequate food.

In 2008, the complaint says, they decided to steal from the program. They got the idea after massive flooding stuck the metro Milwaukee area and they realized how easy it would be to perpetuate the fraud.

Ordonez allegedly set up phony accounts in the names of family members, including her own daughter who was studying at an out-of-state university.

Once she set up the accounts, Ordonez was able to collect $10,227 in benefits from the program through 2011. She said she had been having financial difficulties when she set up the accounts, including a substantial garnishment of her wages.

One of the other women, Teri L. Sloans of Milwaukee, has been charged along with Ordonez in connection with with those program thefts, and Sloans and four other people had already been charged in July 2011 with defrauding the program for more than $150,000.

Ordonez will make her initial appearance in court April 5.