MINNEAPOLIS – Ahmed Abdullahi Ghedi, 35, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges for his role in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.
Ghedi, a Minneapolis man, claimed to be operating a child nutrition site in St. Paul, Minnesota, as part of the scheme. He and his co-conspirators fraudulently claimed to have served more than 1.6 million meals at the ASA Limited site, a purported food site in the Federal Children Nutrition Program, between September 2020 and September 2021.
To accomplish his scheme, Ghedi and his co-conspirators prepared and submitted inflated meal counts, fabricated invoices, and fake attendance rosters of purported children. Rather than using the fraudulently obtained money to serve meals or feed children, Ghedi and his co-conspirators misappropriated much of it.
Ghedi used a shell entity he created, AG Limited LLC, to hide and disguise the source and ownership of his portion of the fraud proceeds. He deposited more than $2 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds into AG Limited LLC bank accounts and used this money to purchase more than $245,000 in motor vehicles and to fund more than $200,000 in credit card spending.
Ghedi also transferred approximately $560,000 in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds to Cosmopolitan Business Properties LLC, another shell he co-owned with other co-conspirators, toward the purchase of a mansion and adjoining property located at 2722 and 2742 Park Avenue South in Minneapolis. The property, along with a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee, will be forfeited to the United States.
Ghedi paid $5,000 in kickbacks to Abdikerm Eidleh, a Feeding Our Future employee, in exchange for sponsoring and facilitating ASA Limited’s fraudulent participation in the Federal Child Nutrition Program. ASA Limited, of which the defendant was a co-owner, paid Eidleh an additional $49,000 in kickbacks. Feeding Our Future received nearly $400,000 in administrative fees for sponsoring ASA Limited’s participation in the program.
Ghedi pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court before Judge Nancy E. Brasel. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date. The case is the result of an investigation by the FBI, IRS – Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
This conviction marks the 47th in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, which caused a loss of $7.2 million to Federal Child Nutrition Programs based on fraudulent claims submitted through Feeding Our Future. Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew S. Ebert, Harry M. Jacobs, and Daniel W. Bobier are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Baune is handling the seizure and forfeiture of assets.
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Key Facts
- State: Minnesota
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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