Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Fraud Scheme, Minnesota 2024

Abdiaziz Shafii Farah Sentenced to 28 Years for Role in $300 Million Fraud Scheme

In a landmark sentence, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, age 36, has been sentenced to 28 years in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release for his role in a $300 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.

Farah was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $47,920,514. Farah played a leading role in the Feeding Our Future case, the largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the United States.

According to public documents, Farah and his co-defendants stole more than $47 million in program funds by claiming to serve 18 million meals to kids at more than 30 food distribution sites.

Farah was the co-owner of Empire Cuisine & Market, an entity that he enrolled in the Federal Child Nutrition Program in April 2020, during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Farah immediately opened a number of fraudulent program sites and began falsely claiming to serve meals to thousands of children per day. Many of the purported “sites” served no meals at all and were nothing more than parking lots or vacant commercial spaces.

Farah profited handsomely from his role in the scheme—he personally pocketed more than $8 million during his 18 months of involvement in the fraud.

Using the taxpayer money meant for needy kids, Farah purchased five luxury vehicles for himself in about six months, including over $300,000 for a Porsche, a GMC truck, and a Tesla.

Farah used approximately $4.2 million in fraudulently-obtained taxpayer funds to purchase real estate throughout the Twin Cities and in Kentucky, which included buying two lakefront lots with the aim of building himself a multi-million-dollar home.

Farah further sent the taxpayer money he stole overseas, purchasing real estate in Kenya and a high-rise apartment building in Nairobi.

Farah laundered the fraud proceeds through China. This overseas money is beyond the reach of American law enforcement—neither these funds nor Farah’s international real estate holdings have been, or can be, seized or forfeited.

Farah was among the very first defendants to see an opportunity for fraud and exploit it. He was also involved in the scheme’s use of phony rosters with fake children’s names. Few of the names on the rosters matched the names of real students attending the local school districts, and many of the names used by Farah were absurd and obviously fake.

Farah routinely directed the flow of fraudulent funds so that his co-conspirators got their “cuts” of the stolen taxpayer money. To keep the fraud going, Farah engaged in a corrupt “pay-to-play” system, where he paid thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to personnel at Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition.

Farah was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, false statements in a passport application, conspiracy to commit money laundering, two counts of federal programs bribery, six counts of wire fraud, and 11 counts of money laundering.

Farah’s sentencing is a significant milestone in the ongoing investigation into the Feeding Our Future case.

MINNEAPOLIS – May 9, 2024.

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