FBI adds alleged covid fraudster to most wanted list
Fox News reports on the FBI adding Fahad Mohamed Nur, an alleged covid fraudster, to the agency’s Most Wanted List. Nur is accused of stealing $5 million from a kids’ meal program, laundering taxpayer dollars meant to feed children. Contributor Gerry Baker discusses the need for strict enforcement against fraud in large government programs, especially to restore public faith and deter future schemes.
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A judge in Minnesota sentenced two men to prison on Wednesday for running a massive pandemic fraud campaign.
Ahmed Ghedi was sentenced to over five years in prison, and Abdihakim Ahmed was sentenced to four and a half years. Prosecutors say the pair helped run the fraudulent child nutrition site Feeding Our Future, which claimed to be giving food to thousands of children each day in the Twin Cities area.
The pair received $7.3 million in COVID relief funds meant to help support the program. Instead, they used the money to buy a car and property, as well as share the cash with a Feeding Our Future employee.
EXCLUSIVE: FBI ADDS ALLEGED COVID FRAUDSTER ACCUSED OF TAKING $5M FROM KIDS’ MEAL PROGRAM TO MOST WANTED LIST
The FBI raided the Twin Cities nonprofit Feeding our Future in St. Anthony, Minn., on Thursday, January 20, 2022. The FBI says the St. Anthony-based nonprofit was part of a broad scheme to defraud the USDA of millions, funneling money from federally funded child nutrition programs to an array of entities to launder the money and use it for personal real estate, cars and other luxury items. (Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
The judge also ordered the men to pay restitution, with Ahmed to pay $2,242,590 and Ghedi $2,862,451.
Their sentencing comes months after the mastermind behind the Feeding Our Future scam, Amee Bock, was sentenced to nearly 42 years in prison in May.
Bock ran the Feeding Our Future organization and was convicted of orchestrating $250 million in pandemic relief fraud.
Prosecutors told the court the nonprofit functioned as a “cash pipeline,” relying on a web of fake distribution sites, fabricated lists of children and kickbacks.
MINNESOTA MAN MARKS FBI’S FIRST ARREST FROM DOJ’S ‘MOST WANTED FRAUDSTERS’ LIST
Aimee Bock wipes tears from her face as she is sentenced in a sketch from federal court, Thursday, in Minneapolis. Bock, the former leader of a Minnesota nonprofit who was convicted in a $250 million fraud case, was sentenced to 42 years in prison. (Cedric Hohnstadt)
During sentencing, Bock told the federal court, “I understand I failed. I failed the public, my family, everyone.”
MINNESOTA FRAUD REPORT ACCUSES STATE AG OF ‘INCOMPETENCE, WILLFUL BLINDNESS OR WORSE’
U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger announces a major COVID-related fraud case in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, detailing charges against the director of Feeding Our Future and 46 others in what prosecutors call a massive scheme to steal more than $250 million meant to feed children during the pandemic. (Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
The sprawling investigation has led to the convictions of dozens of people, many hailing from the state’s large Somali community.
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The Feeding Our Future scheme spurred the Trump administration’s surge of federal officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area last winter, which led to violent protests and multiple fatal federal officer-involved shootings.
Fox News’ Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
