A Minneapolis woman has pleaded guilty to laundering more than $1 million in federal funds she stole as part of the sprawling Feeding Our Future fraud scheme that exploited a pandemic-era child nutrition program, federal prosecutors said.
Najmo Ahmed, 35, admitted Wednesday that she falsified records and routed illicit proceeds through her personal bank accounts while helping operate Evergreen Grocery and Deli in Minneapolis with her husband, according to the Justice Department. Together, they stole millions of dollars in federal funding through the scheme, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors said the couple enrolled the small storefront in the Federal Child Nutrition Program in April 2020 under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit organization at the center of what authorities have described as a $250 million fraud scheme targeting COVID-19 relief funds meant to feed children, which authorities first began investigating during the Biden administration.
According to court documents, Ahmed signed falsified meal count sheets claiming the site served thousands of meals that were never provided. One report dated Dec. 31, 2020, asserted Evergreen Grocery and Deli served 3,250 children twice a day during a single week. Between April 2020 and April 2021, the site claimed to have distributed more than 1.4 million meals.
Those fraudulent claims generated more than $4.2 million in payments from Feeding Our Future, prosecutors said.
Authorities said her husband, Said Ereg, transferred funds from business accounts into personal accounts held by himself and Ahmed, who knew the money represented proceeds of illegal activity. Ahmed then moved at least $1,147,348 to foreign textile and trading companies, including Shaoxing Aifan Textile Co., and spent additional funds on personal luxury purchases from brands such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Canada Goose.
In total, Ahmed laundered $1,381,048 in federal child nutrition funds through her personal accounts, according to prosecutors.
Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa Kirkpatrick said the guilty plea marks another conviction tied to the massive fraud investigation, which has charged dozens of defendants accused of exploiting programs designed to help children during the pandemic.
Ahmed pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota before Judge Nancy Brasel, an appointee of President Donald Trump. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
Her plea comes weeks after the Trump administration zeroed in on Minnesota as a prime example of the fraud and abuse that targets federal funding, which coincided with a surge of immigration enforcement operations in the state.
The Feeding Our Future investigation remains one of the largest pandemic-relief fraud cases in the country, centered on allegations that defendants fabricated meal counts, created shell entities, and siphoned off millions in taxpayer funds intended to provide food to children during COVID-19 shutdowns.
There are still 27 pending cases remaining from the wider slate of 70 Feeding Our Future fraud defendants, and more than 35 have pleaded guilty, five have been found guilty at trial, and two have been found not guilty. Most of the defendants are from the Somali community in Minneapolis.