A woman who claimed she was serving enough meals in Pelican Rapids to feed every resident once a day is among 10 new people facing criminal charges in Minnesota’s child food program scandal.
The new batch of cases brings the total number of defendants so far to 60, with more to come, said U.S. Attorney Andy Luger.
“Our work is not done. We expect to bring more charges in the future,” he said at a news conference Monday.
Like the initial defendants announced last fall, the new cases involve defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food nutrition programs during the coronavirus pandemic, when regulations were temporarily loosened and a variety of businesses and nonprofits were allowed to participate because schools were closed.
And, like the others, the new defendants allegedly spent the proceeds of the fraud on luxury vehicles, real estate and travel. The new cases also include a defendant who bought a laundromat and another who bought an aircraft to be delivered in Kenya, Luger said.
Luger said the total amount of federal money reimbursed due to fraudulent claims in Minnesota now exceeds the $250 million figure he gave in September.
Newly indicted are Kawsar Jama, Abdikadir Kadiye, Abdulkadi Awale, Khadra Abdi, Ayan Abukar, Sade Osman Hashi and Sharon Ross.
Three more were charged by information, which indicates they are expected to plead guilty soon: Mohamed Ali Hussein, Lul Bashir Ali and Mulata Ali.
Luger said Jama obtained more than $3.7 million in reimbursements for phony meal claims in multiple cities, including Pelican Rapids, where she claimed to have served 2,560 meals a day. Unlike other defendants, Jama did not even have a physical location where she could have been distributing meals, Luger said.
“I’ve previously described this as a brazen scheme of staggering proportions, and I would suggest that the allegations against Ms. Jama put the exclamation point to that description,” he said.
Hussein and Ali obtained more than $5 million in reimbursements for meals they say they served in Faribault, where they claimed to have fed a combined 4,100 children, seven days a week.
They allegedly paid kickbacks to an employee at the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which was the state’s largest sponsor of meal program sites, growing from $3.5 million in reimbursements in 2019 to $198 million two years later.
Luger said the government so far has seized $66.6 million in property, bank accounts, vehicles and more during the investigation.
The 10 new defendants are expected to make court appearances either Monday or Tuesday.