LEVITTOWN, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — The CEO of a company that contracted with border patrol, the army and federal prisons was arrested Thursday for defrauding welfare benefits of $112,000, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
Terry Ann Powell-Bajwa, a 45-year-old woman from Levittown, lied to enroll in SNAP food assistance and Medicaid between 2016 and 2021, according to prosecutors. During that time, she earned hundreds of thousands of dollars as the CEO of Tera Consulting, Inc., a consulting and IT company that sells services and commodities.
TCI has been contracted by the Department of Justice to provide televisions, toilet paper and paper towels to federal prisons. The company sold thermal detectors to Customs and Border Protection. It also provided cabinets and white boards to the Department of the Army.
The company was even contracted through the government to provide IT and computer products to the weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin for more than $2 million.
Alongside her role as CEO of TCI, she also held an executive role at a home improvement business that she and her husband owned.
While cashing in on the U.S.’ military and prison industrial complexes, she listed herself as a single mother of two dependent children and an annual income of $23,600, officials said.
In reality, she lived with her 40-year-old husband Khurram Bajwa, who himself served as a financial services manager at Capgemini America, Inc., a business consulting company.
She also failed to report rental income from a Howard Beach, Queens two-family home she rented out as a landlord.
Her husband was also arraigned for lying about the family’s residency in order to get the couple’s child into a preferred school district.
“The defendant and her husband already benefited greatly from several lucrative government contracts awarded to their company, Tera Consulting, Inc., including a $2 million contract with Lockheed Martin, and yet, audaciously filed allegedly fraudulent paperwork, misrepresenting their wealth and family dynamics to receive public assistance benefits earmarked for vulnerable residents,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “NCDA will not tolerate brazen attempts by individuals to circumvent federal, state, or county processes for their own enrichment and at the expense of honest taxpayers.”
Powell-Bajwa pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, welfare fraud and offering a false instrument for filing. She faces between five and 15 years in prison if convicted of the top charge.
Her husband pleaded not guilty to offering a false instrument for filing. He faces up to four years in prison.
Both have court dates scheduled for April 13.
TCI did not immediately respond to 1010 WINS' request for comment.
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