A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a leader of a sprawling, pandemic-era food fraud plot in Minnesota to 28 years in prison.
Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 36, must also pay nearly $48 million in restitution. He faces potentially more years in prison at a later sentencing hearing after previously pleading guilty in a juror bribery case involving a bag of $120,000 in cash.
Farah is one of dozens of people charged in the Feeding Our Future case in which prosecutors alleged a scheme to steal $300 million from a federally funded program meant to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic.
Farah and several co-defendants went to trial last year where he was convicted of 23 of 24 counts against him. Those offenses include multiple counts of federal programs bribery, wire fraud and money laundering.
Prosecutors said Farah exploited the program by opening fraudulent sites where he claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day. Farah and his associates falsified meal counts and invoices, including fake children's names, prosecutors said. He directed the stolen money to others and perpetuated the fraud through a “pay-to-play” system," prosecutors said.
He and his associates stole more than $47 million in program money, and Farah took more than $8 million over a year and a half period, according to prosecutors. He used that money to buy five luxury vehicles and real estate, including property in Kenya, prosecutors said. That overseas property and money prosecutors say Farah laundered via China are out of reach of U.S. law enforcement.
In a statement, Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said Farah “has done untold damage to this state" by “robbing us blind” after finding opportunity in Minnesota.
The Associated Press left a phone message with and sent an email to an attorney for Farah for comment.
Seventy-three people have been charged in connection with the Feeding Our Future case; 51 have been found guilty.
