Somali Woman Found Guilty in $5.7M COVID-19 Fraud in the U.S.

GOOBJOOG NEWS|MINNEAPOLIS: A Somali woman who was part of a ring that defrauded the U.S. government of millions of dollars in a feeding program during the COVID-19 period has been found guilty as two others begin lengthy jail terms.

The court found Ayan Farah Abukar, 43, the founder of the nonprofit Action for East African People guilty of conspiring to defraud the Federal Child Nutrition Program of $5.7 million. According to court documents, Abukar falsely claimed to serve as many as 5,000 children daily across multiple sites in Minnesota between 2020 and 2022. 

According to court documents, Ayan Farah Abukar, 43, and her co-defendants participated in a massive scheme to defraud the Federal Child Nutrition Program by obtaining, misappropriating, and laundering millions of dollars in program funds intended as reimbursements for the cost of serving meals to children. The defendants exploited changes in the program intended to ensure underserved children received adequate nutrition during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than feed children, the defendants enriched themselves by fraudulently misappropriating millions of dollars in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.

The U.S Justice Department said between October 2020 through 2022, Abukar falsely claimed to be serving as many as 5,000 children a day at her various sites in Bloomington, Minneapolis, Savage, and St. Paul. In total, Abukar fraudulently received approximately $5.7 million in fraudulent Federal Child Nutrition Program funds. As part of the scheme to defraud, Abukar also paid more than $330,000 in kickbacks to a Feeding Our Future employee. Abukar spent millions on real estate, including a 37-acre commercial property in Lakeville, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase an aircraft in Nairobi, Kenya.

Another Somali-American, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, a 34-year-old from Bloomington, Minnesota was sentenced on Friday to 17.5 years for or conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Along with the lengthy prison term, Shariff was ordered to pay $47.9 million in restitution.

Another key figure, 51-year-old Mohamed Jama Ismail, received a 12-year sentence in October 2024 for similar charges.