Our government pays out $250 million to cafeterias without ever doing a drive-by
Aside from immigration, the big political question in the U.S. is what percentage of GDP should be consumed and directed by government. In the old days, the Federal government was limited to some extent by the Constitution, but today the only limit on the great things that the Federal government can do is our imagination.
What could be bad about having the government take over what had been a private function? “U.S. Attorney Announces Federal Charges Against 47 Defendants in $250 Million Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme” (justice.gov) is a good example.
The Federal Child Nutrition Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is a federally-funded program designed to provide free meals to children in need. The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service administers the program throughout the nation by distributing federal funds to state governments. In Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) administers and oversees the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Meals funded by the Federal Child Nutrition Program are served by “sites.” Each site participating in the program must be sponsored by an authorized sponsoring organization. Sponsors must submit an application to MDE for each site. Sponsors are also responsible for monitoring each of their sites and preparing reimbursement claims for their sites. The USDA then provides MDE federal reimbursement funds on a per-meal basis. MDE provides those funds to the sponsoring agency who, in turn, pays the reimbursements to the sites under its sponsorship. The sponsoring agency retains 10 to 15 percent of the funds as an administrative fee.
As part of the charged scheme, Feeding Our Future employees recruited individuals and entities to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites throughout the state of Minnesota. These sites, created and operated by the defendants and others, fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed. The defendants created dozens of shell companies to enroll in the program as Federal Child Nutrition Program sites. The defendants also created shell companies to receive and launder the proceeds of their fraudulent scheme.
To carry out the scheme, the defendants also created and submitted false documentation. They submitted fraudulent meal count sheets purporting to document the number of children and meals served at each site. The defendants submitted false invoices purporting to document the purchase of food to be served to children at the sites. The defendants also submitted fake attendance rosters purporting to list the names and ages of the children receiving meals at the sites each day. These rosters were fabricated and created using fake names. For example, one roster was created using names from a website called “www.listofrandomnames.com.” Because the program only reimbursed for meals served to children, other defendants used an Excel formula to insert a random age between seven and 17 into the age column of the rosters.
In total, Feeding Our Future opened more than 250 sites throughout the state of Minnesota and fraudulently obtained and disbursed more than $240 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
In other words, the Minnesota and Federal governments spent $250 million that Americans had paid in taxes without ever simply driving to any of the fictitious cafeteria/restaurant sites to see if there anyone was being fed.
Who is indicted?
- Abdi Nur Salah
- Abdiaziz Shafii Farah
- Abdihakim Ali Ahmed
- Abdikadir Ainanshe Mohamud
- Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh
- Abdimajid Mohamed Nur
- Abdinasir Mahamed Abshir
- Abdirahman Mohamud Ahmed
- Abdiwahab Ahmed Mohamud
- Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin
- Abdul Abubakar Ali
- Abdulkadir Nur Salah
- Abdullahe Nur Jesow
- Ahmed Abdullahi Ghedi
- Ahmed Mohamed Artan
- Ahmed Sharif Omar-Hashim
- Ahmed Yasin Ali
- Aimee Marie Bock
- Anab Artan Awad
- Asad Mohamed Abshir
- Asha Jama
- Ayan Jama
- Bekam Addissu Merdassa
- Fahad Nur
- Farhiya Mohamud
- Fartun Jama
- Filsan Mumin Hassan
- Guhaad Hashi Said
- Hadith Yusuf Ahmed
- Haji Osman Salad
- Hamdi Hussein Omar
- Hanna Marekegn
- Hayat Mohamed Nur
- Khadar Jigre Adan
- Liban Yasin Alishire
- Mahad Ibrahim
- Mohamed Jama Ismail
- Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff
- Mustafa Jama
- Qamar Ahmed Hassan
- Sahra Mohamed Nur
- Said Shafii Farah
- Salim Ahmed Said
- Sharmarke Issa
- Sharmake Jama
- Yusuf Bashir Ali
- Zamzam Jama
The Federales note “An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” but we know that this isn’t true with respect to Donald Trump, whose guilt may be established even prior to any indictment.
Why couldn’t Federal or state officials, at some point during the three years in which payments were made, have made an in-person visit to see what was being served for $250 million in tax money? Weren’t they curious to check out the menu and food?
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