A Shakopee woman pleaded guilty for her role in the $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick.
According to court documents, at times between October 2020 and January 2022, Mekfira Hussein knowingly and willfully conspired with others to participate in a fraudulent scheme to obtain and misappropriate millions in federal child nutrition funds.
Specifically, Hussein and her husband, Abduljabar Hussein, fraudulently obtained millions of dollars in federal child nutrition program funds by falsely claiming to have served meals to thousands of children per day.
According to court documents, in October 2020, the defendant enrolled her non-profit, Shamsia Hopes, in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future at the direction of one of its employees, Abdikerm Eidleh.
The defendant submitted her application to Aimee Bock, Feeding Our Future’s executive director. In December 2020, and also at the direction of Abdikerm Eidleh, the defendant’s husband registered his company, Oromia Feeds LLC, with the State of Minnesota as a food vendor.
Abduljabar Hussein’s company, Oromia Feeds, had a contract to prepare meals to be served by Shamsia Hopes sites run by Mekfira Hussein.
According to the plea agreement entered on Monday, Hussein submitted fraudulently inflated invoices for reimbursement—including inflated meal counts and false attendance rosters. As part of their scheme, the defendant and her husband paid at least $140,000 in kickbacks to Eidleh and at least $12,000 in kickbacks to Aimee Bock.
In some instances, these kickback payments were disguised as “consulting fees” when, in fact, neither Eidleh nor Aimee Bock provided any service to justify these payments.
In other instances, Feeding Our Future billed hundreds of thousands of dollars in Federal Child Nutrition Program claims under the name of the defendant’s organization, Shamsia Hopes, without the defendant’s knowledge or authorization, and Feeding Our Future siphoned those funds to others involved in the conspiracy.
Throughout the fraudulent conspiracy, the Husseins obtained up to $8.8 million in federal child nutrition program funds, some of which they used to pay for personal expenditures unrelated to feeding children. For instance, the defendant and her husband used $173,438 of their proceeds to pay off the mortgage on their home in Shakopee, Minnesota and also purchased a 2021 Porsche for $93,250, a 2022 GMC truck for $61,722.
Hussein pleaded guilty last Friday in U.S. District Court before Judge Nancy E. Brasel to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Her sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.
