Minneapolis man pleads guilty in $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme
MINNEAPOLIS — A 40-year-old Minneapolis man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection to the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud case during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger charged dozens of people in connection with what he called "the largest pandemic fraud in the United States." He accused them of defrauding the federal child nutrition program and pocketing most of it for personal use, instead of using it to feed children.
On Thursday, his office reported that Ahmed Sharif Omar-Hashim, also known as Salah Donyale, admitted to knowingly participating in the scheme from April 2020 through January 2022. Luger claimed that Omar-Hashim was one of multiple co-conspirators who misappropriated program funds intended as reimbursements.
Court documents indicate Omar-Hashim and others created a company called Olive Management Inc., under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. The organization claimed it was serving meals to 3,000 children daily in the St. Cloud area, every day of the week. For the year stretching from September 2020 through the following September, Omar-Hashim claimed to have served 1.6 million meals at the site.
The complaint says he submitted multiple fraudulent meal count sheets and invoices, along with attendance rosters that faked the names of more than 2,000 children.
"Of the approximately 2,040 names on the list, only approximately 20 matched the names of children attending school in the St. Cloud Public School District," Luger's office reported. "Based on these fraudulent claims, Omar-Hashim and his co-conspirators received approximately $7,490,711 in Federal Child Nutrition Program reimbursements for meals purportedly served to children at the Olive Management site."
Hashim-Omar entered his guilty plea Wednesday, appearing in U.S. District Court before Judge Nancy E. Brasel, pertaining to one count of wire fraud. His sentencing remains pending.
Others have also submitted guilty pleas in the case.
Feeding Our Future background
Feeding Our Future was formed in 2016 to help poor and minority communities secure federal food program funding. The nonprofit quickly became the largest independent sponsor of such programs in Minnesota.
Court documents say the Department of Education grew concerned about the rapid growth in reimbursements and the number of sites sponsored by Feeding Our Future. The department said it reached out to the USDA in the summer of 2020 and began scrutinizing the nonprofit's site applications. In one case, the agency denied an application for a group that claimed in March 2021 it was serving an after-school snack and supper to 5,000 kids a day; the FBI characterized this as "an exceedingly large number of children."
The Department of Education went to the FBI in April 2021, and the FBI began investigating the following month.
After the Department of Education increased its scrutiny, Feeding Our Future sued the agency in November 2020. Feeding Our Future alleged discrimination, among other things, saying many of the groups it works with are in minority communities.
By December 2020, the Department of Education stopped approving new site applications for Feeding Our Future.
In September 2022, Luger's office announced nearly 50 people had been indicted in connection with Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors said just a fraction of the money went toward feeding kids, with the rest laundered through shell companies and spent on property, luxury cars and travel.
"Their goal was to make as much money for themselves as they could while falsely claiming to feed children during the pandemic," Luger said. "As alleged in these indictments, over a short period of time, these 47 defendants engaged in a brazen scheme of staggering proportions."
Since the initial wave of charges, more have been indicted.
