Latest news with #pandemicFraud
CBS News
6 days ago
- CBS News
Man who claimed to operate Mankato food distribution site pleads guilty in Feeding Our Future case
A 34-year-old man pleaded guilty on Monday for his role in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. Asad Abshir pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering. He is the 48th defendant to be convicted in what prosecutors have called the largest pandemic fraud case in the country. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Asad Abshir and his brother Abdinasir Abshir helped work for the nonprofit Stigma Free International, which claimed to operate a food distribution site in Mankato. The DOJ says the Abshirs did not provide the 1.6 million meals for children that they claimed to. Abdinasir Abshir received $750,000 in funds and the DOJ says it has seized $424,000 from the bank account of his shell company, Santana LLC. "This guilty plea is another step in exposing the staggering levels of fraud that have been hiding in plain sight across Minnesota," said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson. "This defendant laundered money meant to feed children and funneled it into a web of shell companies and luxury spending." Abdinasir Abshir was the 37th Feeding Our Future defendant to plead guilty. Aimee Bock, the ring leader of the $250 million fraud case, was found guilty in March of multiple criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery.
CBS News
26-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Minneapolis man becomes 47th person convicted in $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme
A 35-year-old Minneapolis man pleaded guilty to his role in what federal prosecutors say is the largest pandemic fraud case in the country, Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson announced Thursday. Court documents state that Ahmed Ghedi pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. His sentencing will be scheduled at a later date. He is the 47th person convicted in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota. Prosecutors say Ghed, like many of those convicted in the case, fraudulently claimed to be running a child nutrition site, feeding thousands of children a day in St. Paul and took federal COVID-19 relief funds to do so. Over nearly one year, Ghedi deposited more than $2 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds into the bank account of a shell company he created, according to court documents. He used the funds to purchase more than $245,000 in motor vehicles and more than $200,000 in credit card spending. Additionally, Ghedi used approximately $560,000 in fraudulently obtained funds towards the purchase of a mansion-turned-office building and adjoining property in south Minneapolis. Both the property and a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee will be forfeited to the United States, prosecutors say. Ghedi reportedly paid a Feeding Our Future employee $5,000 in kickbacks in exchange for sponsoring his business's participation in the program. His company then paid the same employee an additional $49,000 in kickbacks. Court documents say Feeding Our Future received nearly $400,000 in administrative fees for sponsoring the participation of Ghedi's business in the program. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota says Ghedi received $7.2 million total from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through fraudulent claims. Earlier this year, Aimee Bock was found guilty on multiple criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery. Bock, the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, was found in court to have orchestrated the defrauding of the Federal Child Nutrition Program out of a quarter of a billion dollars. Salim Said, a co-defendant in Bock's trial, was also convicted on multiple counts. Dozens of people were charged in connection with the scheme.
