A Minneapolis man has admitted guilt to charges of wire fraud and money laundering related to a $250 million fraud scheme targeting a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.
Court documents reveal that Ahmed Abdullahi Ghedi, 35, falsely claimed to operate a child nutrition site in St. Paul, Minnesota, from September 2020 through January 2022. On September 4, 2020, Ghedi’s co-conspirator registered ASA Limited LLC with the Minnesota Secretary of State. Shortly after, they applied for ASA Limited to run a food site under the Federal Children Nutrition Program sponsored by Feeding Our Future at Gurey Deli in St. Paul.
Within three weeks of establishing ASA Limited, Ghedi and his associates falsely reported serving meals to thousands of children daily. Over one year from September 2020 to September 2021, they claimed over 1.6 million meals were served at the site using inflated meal counts and fabricated records.
Instead of utilizing funds for their intended purpose, Ghedi misappropriated much of it using AG Limited LLC as a shell entity to conceal proceeds from the fraud. Between December 2020 and November 2021, he deposited over $2 million into AG Limited LLC accounts and spent substantial amounts on vehicles and credit card expenses. He also transferred approximately $560,000 toward purchasing property in Minneapolis which will now be forfeited along with other assets.
Ghedi paid kickbacks totaling $54,000 to Abdikerm Eidleh of Feeding Our Future for facilitating ASA Limited’s fraudulent involvement in the program while Feeding Our Future received nearly $400,000 in administrative fees.
The fraudulent activities resulted in a loss of $7.2 million to Federal Child Nutrition Programs through claims made via Feeding Our Future.
Ghedi entered his guilty plea before Judge Nancy E. Brasel in U.S. District Court with sentencing scheduled for a later date.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI, IRS – Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with prosecution led by Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson alongside Assistant U.S Attorneys Matthew S. Ebert, Harry M Jacobs and Daniel W Bobier; asset seizure handled by Assistant U.S Attorney Craig Baune.
