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A resident of Nairobi, Kenya and the brother-in-law of a key player in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme is the 74th person charged in the sprawling case.
Federal prosecutors say dozens of people connected to the defunct Twin Cities nonprofit stole hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during COVID by making fraudulent reimbursement requests for meals they never served.
Investigators say Ahmednaji Maalim Aftin Sheikh helped his brother-in-law Abdiaziz Farah stash millions of dollars overseas. Sheikh, 28, is charged with money laundering.
In August, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel handed Farah a 28-year sentence after a jury convicted him of wire fraud, passport fraud, bribery and money laundering. Farah, 36, was the lead defendant in the first Feeding Our Future trial in 2024. Jurors found that Farah and four of his six co-defendants stole more than $47 million after enrolling a small Shakopee restaurant in the food program under the sponsorship of another nonprofit, Partners in Quality Care.
Sheikh allegedly used stolen money to purchase a 20 percent stake in a Kenyan real estate company, an ownership interest in a Nairobi apartment building, and land in Mandera, a city on the Kenya-Somalia border.
The indictment against Sheikh, unsealed Wednesday, includes photos depicting several hundred thousand dollars in cash that Farah sent to him through a Minnesota-based wire transfer business.
“You are gonna be the richest 25 year old InshaAllah [God willing],” Farah texted Sheikh during the height of the fraud scheme in mid-2021.
“I love you so much,” Sheikh allegedly replied.
Federal prosecutors have not said if they’ll try to have Sheikh extradited to the United States to face charges.
English (US) ·