Judge sentences Feeding Our Future fraudsters who faked running child nutrition site
A judge in Minnesota sentenced two men to prison on Wednesday for running a massive pandemic fraud campaign.Ahmed Ghedi was sentenced to over five years in prison, and Abdihakim Ahmed was sentenced to four and a half years.Prosecutors say the pair helped run the fraudulent child nutrition site Feeding Our Future, which claimed to be giving food to thousands of children each day in the Twin Cities area.The pair received $7.3 million in COVID relief funds meant to help support the program.
Instead, they used the money to buy a car and property, as well as share the cash with a Feeding Our Future employee.EXCLUSIVE: FBI ADDS ALLEGED COVID FRAUDSTER ACCUSED OF TAKING $5M FROM KIDS' MEAL PROGRAM TO MOST WANTED LISTFBI raid Twin Cities nonprofit Feeding our Future, in St.Anthony, Minn., on Thursday, January 20, 2022.
The FBI says the St.Anthony-based nonprofit was part of a broad scheme to defraud the USDA of millions, funneling money from federally funded child nutrition programs to an array of entities to launder the money and use it for personal real estate, cars and other luxury items.
(Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune via Getty Images)The judge also ordered the men to pay restitution, with Ahmed to pay $2,242,590 and Ghedi $2,862,451.Their sentencing comes months after the mastermind behind the Feeding Our Future scam, Amee Bock, was sentenced to nearly 42 years in prison in May.Bock ran the Feeding Our Future organization and was convicted of orchestrating $250 million in pandemic relief fraud.Prosecutors told the court the nonprofit functioned as a "cash pipeline," relying on a web of fake distribution sites, fabricated lists of children and kickbacks.MINNESOTA MAN MARKS FBI'S FIRST ARREST FROM DOJ'S 'MOST WANTED FRAUDSTERS' LISTAimee Bock wipes tears from her face as she is sentenced in a sketch from federal court, Thursday, in Minneapolis.Bock, the former leader of a Minnesota nonprofit who was convicted in a $250 million fraud case, was sentenced to 42 years in...