Minnesota State Wire

A Minneapolis man has admitted guilt in connection with a $250 million fraud scheme that misused a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, as announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.

Court documents reveal that from September 2020 to January 2022, Ahmed Abdullahi Ghedi, aged 35, falsely claimed to operate a child nutrition site in St. Paul, Minnesota. The fraudulent activity began on or around September 4, 2020, when Ghedi's associate registered ASA Limited LLC with the Minnesota Secretary of State. Shortly thereafter, an application was submitted for ASA Limited to run a supposed food site under the Federal Children Nutrition Program through the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future at Gurey Deli in St. Paul.

In less than three weeks after establishing the ASA Limited site, Ghedi and his co-conspirators falsely reported serving meals to between 2,000 and 3,000 children daily throughout the week. Over one year from September 2020 to September 2021, they fraudulently claimed to have served over 1.6 million meals at this site. They accomplished this by submitting inflated meal counts along with fabricated invoices and attendance rosters.

Rather than utilizing the funds obtained for their intended purpose of feeding children, Ghedi and his associates misappropriated much of it for personal use. Ghedi used AG Limited LLC—a shell entity he created—to conceal the source and ownership of his share of the fraud proceeds. Between December 2020 and November 2021, he deposited more than $2 million from Federal Child Nutrition Program funds into AG Limited LLC bank accounts. This money financed over $245,000 in vehicle purchases and more than $200,000 in credit card expenditures. Additionally, approximately $560,000 was transferred to Cosmopolitan Business Properties LLC—a shell co-owned by Ghedi—towards acquiring a mansion and adjacent property on Park Avenue South in Minneapolis; these will be forfeited to the United States along with a Jeep Grand Cherokee purchased in 2021.

The court documents also indicate that Ghedi paid kickbacks totaling $5,000 to Abdikerm Eidleh—a Feeding Our Future employee—in return for sponsoring ASA Limited's fraudulent involvement in the Federal Child Nutrition Program. An additional $49,000 was paid by ASA Limited to Eidleh as kickbacks while Feeding Our Future received nearly $400,000 in administrative fees for sponsoring ASA Limited’s participation.

Overall losses caused by Ghedi and his accomplices amounted to $7.2 million against Federal Child Nutrition Programs through fraudulent claims submitted via Feeding Our Future.

Ghedi entered his guilty plea today before Judge Nancy E. Brasel at U.S District Court; sentencing will occur at a later date yet determined.

The investigation leading up to this case involved contributions from multiple agencies including FBI agents alongside IRS Criminal Investigations unit members together with personnel from U.S Postal Inspection Service efforts spearheaded by Acting U.S Attorney Joseph H Thompson working alongside Assistant U S Attorneys Matthew S Ebert Harry M Jacobs Daniel W Bobier among others handling asset seizure matters is Assistant US Attorney Craig Baune