In response to a question from journalists at the end of his news conference, U.S. “The suspects in this case weren’t interested in feeding our future-they were interested in feeding their own gluttony,” said Michael Paul, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis field office. JigJiga Business Center, a south Minneapolis mall and event center housing several businesses that “purported to be in the business of providing meals,” according to a federal indictment.Haji’s Kitchen, a restaurant in Crystal that also served as a food vendor for the federal meals program.Brava Restaurant & Cafe, a Rochester-based restaurant that served as a food vendor for the federal meals program.Empire Cuisine and Market, a Shakopee-based restaurant and grocery store located in a strip mall that opened in 2020.S&S Catering, a food vendor located in south Minneapolis on East Lake Street, one block from Safari Restaurant.Safari Restaurant & Event Center, a popular south Minneapolis restaurant also known as a community hub and fixture.The criminal charges revolve around the various players in six organizations. These smaller nonprofits, religious institutions, and other groups were supposed to feed children from lower-income families.įederal authorities said in previously released court documents that many vendors committed extensive fraud while working with sponsor organization Feeding Our Future. An indictment is a legal document that accuses someone of a crime.
#FEEDY NEWS FULL#
Sahan Journal has compiled a full list of people charged in Tuesday’s indictments.
In some cases, suspects used an Excel formula to randomly generate ages between 7 and 17 to fill out the reporting forms.
#FEEDY NEWS GENERATOR#
Instead, Luger said, the suspects created fake names with a random online name generator and pocketed millions in reimbursement funds. But only 33 names on the feeding site’s reimbursement list matched names of real children from the school district. One site in Willmar claimed to be feeding 2,000 children per week-a number that would represent half the school-aged children in town. Investigators allege that in a little over 20 months, these operations fraudulently reported providing more than 125 nonexistent million meals to children.
“Before long, it grew to become the largest pandemic fraud in the United States.”Īimee Bock, executive director of the now-defunct Feeding Our Future, allegedly recruited dozens of individuals to open more than 200 food sites. “Their goal was to make as much money for themselves as they could while falsely claiming to feed children during the pandemic,” Luger said. Attorney Andrew Luger outlined how the scheme worked, its players, and the criminal charges against them. At a news conference Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis, U.S. The criminal charges include conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and bribery. Federal prosecutors charged 48 people Tuesday for their roles in the alleged embezzlement of more than $250 million from government programs intended to feed low-income families, in the largest case of COVID pandemic fraud in the nation.
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