Abdullahe Nur Jesow of Minneapolis was sentenced on April 9 to 43 months in prison and two years of supervised release for his involvement in a $250 million fraud scheme that targeted a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen. Jesow was also ordered to pay $866,458 in restitution.
Court documents show that from December 2020 through September 2021, Jesow claimed to operate a Federal Child Nutrition Program meal distribution site at Benadir Hall on Lake Street in Minneapolis. The site was run under the non-profit Academy for Youth Excellence, where Jesow served as Secretary.
During this period, Academy for Youth Excellence reported serving more than 1.7 million meals to children at Benadir Hall. However, authorities found that only a small portion of those meals were actually provided. As a result of these false claims, Academy for Youth Excellence and its food vendor S&S Catering received over $4.2 million in federal funds intended for child nutrition programs. Instead of using the money as intended, Jesow used some of it for personal expenses such as purchasing a home in Columbia Heights.
Jesow was among eight defendants charged with multiple offenses in September 2022 and pleaded guilty on September 18, 2025, to one count of money laundering. Judge Nancy E. Brasel delivered the sentence and remarked that the defendant’s actions “severely undermined public trust in government programs and in the government itself.”
“The sentence handed down today should be a clear message to those who would seek to enrich themselves by defrauding critical child nutrition programs,” said FBI Minneapolis Division Special Agent in Charge Christopher D. Dotson. “The FBI and our investigative partners have and will continue to direct significant investigative resources to rooting out fraud in the programs that support and sustain our children and our communities.” The investigation involved the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigations division, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rebecca E. Kline and Matthew C. Murphy prosecuted the case while Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Baune is overseeing asset seizure.
