Two more defendants in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme pleaded guilty in separate federal court cases last week.
Ayan Jama of Shakopee and Mekfira Hussein of Rochester pleaded guilty in their respective cases for their roles in defrauding a federal child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa Kirkpatrick on Monday.
Facts in the Jama case:
“According to court documents, Jama was one of the principals of Brava Rochester in Rochester, Minnesota. In September 2020, Jama’s Brava Restaurant and Aimee Bock applied for enrollment in the federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Bock’s non-profit, Feeding Our Future. A co-conspirator enrolled Brava Restaurant in the federal Child Nutrition Program after the co-conspirator first prepared application paperwork at the direction of Salim Said, the co-owner of Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, which was another business involved in the scheme to defraud the food program.
From late 2020 through 2021, Jama and other conspirators claimed Brava Restaurant was serving approximately 2,000 to 3,000 daily breakfasts and lunches to children, for which they fraudulently claimed and received millions of dollars in federal Child Nutrition Program funds. To accomplish this scheme, Jama and her co-conspirators submitted fake attendance rosters purporting to list the names of children who purportedly received their food at sites. These rosters were fraudulent in that the names on them were fake or did not correctly reflect the number of children that were fed.
According to her plea agreement entered today, Jama claimed Brava Restaurant had served more than 1.7 million meals in Rochester as part of the federal Child Nutrition Program in a little over one year, a number substantially higher than the actual number of meals served. Based on these fraudulent claims, Feeding Our Future paid out over $5.3 million in federal Child Nutrition Program reimbursements for meals purportedly served to children by the defendant and her co-conspirators. Jama knew her receipt of such funds was fraudulent because she and other conspirators intentionally submitted inflated meal counts. Jama’s Brava Restaurant ultimately received $4.3 million directly from Feeding Our Future and over $900,000 from Safari Restaurant, co-owned by Salim Said.
As part of their scheme, Jama and her conspirators coordinated the establishment of shell companies through which they received and dispersed funds from the federal Child Nutrition Program. Specifically, on January 7, 2021, Salim Said paid to register six different shell companies with the state of Minnesota for Jama and others. For Jama, Salim Said paid to register East Africa LLC. In 2021, Jama deposited at least $407,070 in misappropriated federal Child Nutrition Program funds into her East Africa LLC bank accounts.
Jama used the federal child nutrition funds to pay for personal expenditures unrelated to feeding children, including $254,041 to purchase a home located in Rochester, Minnesota, $168,000 to purchase a home located in Columbus, Ohio, and $356,795 to purchase property on the Mediterranean Coast in Alanya, Turkey.”
Facts in the Hussein case:
“According to court documents, in October 2020, the defendant enrolled her non-profit, Shamsia Hopes, in the federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, at the direction of one of its employees, Abdikerm Eidleh. The defendant submitted her application to Aimee Bock, Feeding Our Future’s executive director. In December 2020, and also at the direction of Abdikerm Eidleh, the defendant’s husband registered his company, Oromia Feeds LLC, with the State of Minnesota as a food vendor. Abduljabar Hussein’s company, Oromia Feeds, had a contract to prepare meals to be served by Shamsia Hopes sites run by Mekfira Hussein.
According to the plea agreement entered today, Hussein submitted fraudulently inflated invoices for reimbursement—including inflated meal counts and false attendance rosters. As part of their scheme, the defendant and her husband paid at least $140,000 in kickbacks to Eidleh and least $12,000 in kickbacks to Aimee Bock. In some instances, these kickback payments were disguised as ‘consulting fees,’ when, in fact, neither Eidleh nor Aimee Bock provided any service to justify these payments. In other instances, Feeding Our Future billed hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal Child Nutrition Program claims under the name of the defendant’s organization, Shamsia Hopes, without the defendant’s knowledge or authorization, and Feeding Our Future siphoned those funds to others involved in the conspiracy.
Throughout the fraudulent conspiracy, the Husseins obtained up to $8.8 million in federal Child Nutrition Program funds some of which they used to pay for personal expenditures unrelated to feeding children. For instance, the defendant and her husband used $173,438 of their proceeds to pay off the mortgage on their home in Shakopee, Minnesota, and also purchased a 2021 Porsche for $93,250, and a 2022 GMC truck for $61,722.”
Information also came to light that campaign finance records showed Hussein and her relatives had contributed a combined $3,000 to Sen. John Hoffman’s campaign in 2021. After learning of the donations, Hoffman said he wrote a check to cover the donations and turned it over to authorities. Hoffman was just one of several DFL politicians, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, to receive campaign donations from various fraudsters charged in the cases.
Jama pleaded guilty last Friday in U.S. District Court before Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
Hussein pleaded guilty last Friday in U.S. District Court before Judge Nancy E. Brasel to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Neither defendant appears to be in custody at this time, and sentencing hearings for both will be scheduled at a later date.
Of the 70 defendants charged in the Feeding Our Future fraud cases, about 30 have pleaded guilty so far. Five others were found guilty at trial in June 2024. More guilty pleas are expected this week, Center of the American Experiment reported.
Jury selection was also completed this week in the trial of the alleged ringleader of Feeding Our Future, Aimee Bock. Prosecutors allege that Bock, 44, was the mastermind behind the scheme and worked closely with a network of restaurants and nonprofits that played a key role in the fraud, falsely claiming to serve thousands of meals to children in need while pocketing federal reimbursements.
Alpha News will continue to follow developments in the Bock trial.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
