Three more individuals were sentenced this week in Minnesota’s $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal, bringing the total number of people sentenced to 26, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Abdihakim Ali Ahmed, 40, was sentenced to 54 months in prison for one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
Ahmed Abdullahi Ghedi, 35, was sentenced to 65 months in prison for one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
Ahmed Sharif Omar-Hashim, aka “Salah Donyale,” 43, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for one count of wire fraud.
“These sentences represent my office’s commitment to restoring the integrity of publicly funded programs. The Department of Justice will continue to hold accountable those who steal funds meant for vulnerable children and seek accountability for American taxpayers,” said U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen.
Ahmed and Ghedi were involved in operating a food distribution site sponsored by Feeding Our Future out of Gurey Deli in a Maplewood strip mall, according to press releases on their guilty pleas.
Within just weeks of opening the site, they claimed to be serving meals to 2,000 to 3,000 children per day, seven days a week.
Between September 2020 and September 2021, they fraudulently claimed to serve more than 1.6 million meals at the site.
Like many others in the scheme, they submitted fake attendance rosters and used the fraud proceeds to purchase vehicles and property.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office previously said that Ahmed and Ghedi caused a loss of more than $7 million to the federal Child Nutrition Programs through fraudulent claims.
Meanwhile, Omar-Hashim operated a food distribution site in St. Cloud using a company called Olive Management that claimed to serve 3,000 children a day, seven days a week.
He and his co-conspirators submitted a fake attendance roster purporting to list the names of 2,040 children who attended the Olive Management site’s “after-school program,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release when Omar-Hashim pleaded guilty.
Of the 2,040 names on the list, only approximately 20 matched the names of children attending school in the St. Cloud Public School District, the press release said.
Based on these fraudulent claims, Omar-Hashim and his co-conspirators received approximately $7.4 million in reimbursements for meals purportedly served to children at the Olive Management site, according to the press release.
“These defendants helped generate outlandish and impossible meal counts at Safari Restaurant and associated sites. The numbers defied reality and exposed a scheme built on wanton greed,” said FBI Minneapolis Field Office Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dotson. “They stole millions from programs meant to feed children in need, and now they are being held to answer for it.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
