Ayan Jama and Mekfira Hussein pleaded guilty to their role in stealing $250 million from a U.S. federal program meant to feed hungry children during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Two more defendants in the 2022 Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme pleaded guilty Monday, capping off yet another case related to several dozen conspirators who stole $250 million from hungry children during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States.
Ayan Jama and Mekfira Hussein, both from Minnesota, conspired to steal millions from a U.S. federal food program, designed to provide low-income families with meals for their children.
Sponsors could enrol in the Feeding Our Future program to distribute meals to needy kids, whose families were under extreme economic pressure brought on by the pandemic. The costs were then reimbursed by the U.S. government’s Federal Child Nutrition Program, who allowed the distributors to retain 10 to 15 percent of the funds as an administrative fee.
Early on, however, a group of Minnesotans saw this humanitarian effort as a means to attain a life of luxury, in what prosecutors called “the ultimate get-rich-quick scheme.”
Along with Aimee Bock, identified by authorities as the alleged kingpin of the entire fraud scheme, Jama enrolled her restaurants into Feeding Our Future. From late 2020 through 2021, they claimed to have served up to 3,000 daily breakfasts and lunches to children, for which they fraudulently claimed millions of dollars in federal reimbursements.
Hussein, along with her husband Abduljabar Hussein, similarly defrauded the federal government of millions by falsely claiming to have fed thousands of hungry children per day through her non-profit, Shamsia Hopes, and his company, Oromia Feeds.
Like Jama, the couple originally enrolled into the program by applying through Bock, Feeding Our Future’s executive director.
To sell the lie, the conspirators submitted lists of fake names in the thousands, in order to fool the government into believing that the meals had actually been handed out to children in need.
Jama, for instance, claimed her restaurant had served more than 1.7 million meals in a little over one year, a number prosecutors said was “substantially higher” than the true figure.
As a reward for her lies, she was paid more than $5.3 million, prosecutors said. From this, more than $400,000 was deposited into her East Africa LLC bank accounts, while another $779,000 was used to purchase properties in Rochester, Minnesota; Columbus, Ohio; and Alanya, Turkey, along the Mediterranean Coast.
The Husseins, meanwhile, walked away with roughly $8.8 million in federal funds, some of which they used on luxury purchases including a Porsche and a new truck.
Throughout all of this, Bock was paid kickbacks for her role as kingpin, prosecutors said. She is said to have received $12,000 from the Husseins alone, as payment for allowing them in on one of the pandemic’s biggest fraud schemes.
Bock’s case is still ongoing, with the courts currently underway in selecting her jury.
So far, more than 60 conspirators have pleaded guilty to their role in the Feeding Our Future scandal, which robbed taxpayers of $250 million.
Jama and Hussein each pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. Their sentencing hearings will be scheduled at a later date.
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