A man convicted of charges stemming from the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme has been sentenced.
Wednesday morning, 36-year-old Abdiaziz Farah appeared in federal court to be sentenced on charges of wire fraud and money laundering and passport fraud. Judge Nancy Brasel ordered Farah to spend a total of 28 years in prison and another three years of probation. In addition, he must pay back more than $47,900,000.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson argued for a long sentence, and said Farah was given everything by the United States.
“A home. Citizenship. A free college education. After that he went on to public employment with the state of Minnesota. And how did he repay this country and this state? By robbing us blind. He has gotten every opportunity and this is how he used it. Farah didn’t want the American dream. He wanted to be rich. he wanted to be wealthy. He thought he was entitled to it. He won the lottery of life, he was given everything by this country, and he repaid us with a life of crime,” said Thompson.
Court documents say Farah was the co-owner of Empire Cuisine and Market, which was enrolled in the federal child nutrition program in 2020. He then opened fake program sites and made false claims to serve meals to thousands of kids every day. Many of the fake sites ended up not serving any meals and were only parking lots or empty office buildings.
The documents go on to say Farah bought five luxury vehicles within six months by using money meant to feed kids in need. He also bought real estate in the Twin Cities, the state of Kentucky and a high-rise building in Nairobi, Kenya, using taxpayer funds. Farah tried to escape to Kenya after his passport was seized during a search warrant, and was given a new passport after claiming his was lost instead of being seized by federal agents.
Prosecutors say Farah laundered fake proceeds through China, and add law enforcement agencies in the United States aren’t able to get any money or real estate which are overseas.
In all, a total of $300 million was stolen throughout the entire Feeding Our Future scheme, which involves dozens of defendants.
Near the end of his trial for the above crimes, prosecutors say Farah and four others attempted to bribe a juror in exchange for a not guilty verdict. Farah’s two brothers — Said Shafii Farah and Abdulkarim Shafii Farah — as well as Abdimajid Mohamed Nur and Ladan Mohamed Ali, were ultimately charged with him for the bribery attempt in June of 2024. Farah, who has pleaded guilty in that case, will be sentenced for that crime at a later time.
A juror told police a woman dropped a bag of $120,000 in cash at her home and also offered more money if she voted to acquit seven people charged with stealing more than $40 million from a program meant to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to the juror being dismissed, and the rest of the jury was sequestered. Another juror was dismissed after hearing about the alleged bribe.
Nur and Ali both pleaded guilty to one count of bribery of a juror last year, while Abdulkarim Farah pleaded guilty to that same charge back in April.
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