Gwinnett County brothers were sentenced Wednesday for stealing millions of dollars in a metro Atlanta food stamp scheme.
Rodney Byrd, 41, of Lawrenceville, and Reginald Byrd, 40, of College Park, pleaded guilty in July 2015 to conspiring to commit food stamp fraud.
The brothers weren’t in custody while waiting on the judge’s sentencing, so they will now have to report to prison to serve their time. Rodney Byrd was sentenced to four years in prison and Reginald Byrd was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
“They do time in federal prison,” Department of Justice spokesman Bob Page said. “At least 85 percent.”
Both defendants were also sentenced to three years of supervised release, a special assessment of $100 and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $5,747,817.18.
U.S. Attorney John Horn said the men used their metro Atlanta stores to illegally buy more than $5.7 million in vouchers from the Georgia Women, Infants and Children Program and debit cards from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Rodney Byrd owned and operated several metro area stores named “Tweet Baby Tweet,” “Chicos and Chicas Variety Store” and “Tweets, Treats, and Nic Nacs,” Horn said. Reginald Byrd managed at least one of these stores.
