Judge issues 17-year prison sentence in Feeding Our Future fraud scheme

A defendant in the Feeding Our Future scheme was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison on Friday for his role in defrauding the federal government of $47 million meant for feeding children in need during the pandemic.

Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff’s 210-month prison term is the longest sentence of the two that so far have been handed down in the case.

Shariff cried as he read from a typed statement expressing remorse for his actions. But U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel was unmoved, saying it was the “exact opposite” of the testimony Shariff gave in the case.

“When the world was at its most vulnerable, you were not a helper, you were a thief,” Brasel said.

Shariff is one of 70 people who have been charged in the Feeding Our Future scheme. Prosecutors have called it the single largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country.

As of Friday, 24 defendants have pleaded guilty but will likely face much shorter prison sentences for having smaller roles. Possible sentences for those lower-level defendants range from about two years to nearly five years in prison.

The latest guilty plea came Friday afternoon when 43-year-old Ayan Farah Abukar changed her plea to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

When Brasel read the sentence for Shariff, a supporter in the courtroom slammed a wooden bench and yelled, “No justice.”

Shariff’s supporters packed the courtroom. Many of them, Shariff said in comments before sentencing, had flown to Minnesota from overseas.

“I feel remorse, humility and a deep sense of sadness for the actions that have led me here today,” he said.

Shariff was one of five defendants found guilty in the scheme last June. He was convicted of four counts: wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering.

He was the chief executive officer of Afrique Hospitality Group, a company used to fraudulently obtain and launder federal child nutrition program funds.

Jurors found that Shariff helped siphon around $47 million from the programs for children in need during the pandemic, according to the charges. Prosecutors said he submitted fraudulent meal count sheets and invoices claiming he served meals to up to 3,500 children a day in Bloomington.

Shariff also created an “array” of shell companies and entities to siphon off and launder funds, according to the charges. Many were set up as fake food distribution and consulting companies, the prosecution said.

The prison term was at the bottom of the sentencing recommendation by the prosecution. Shariff and his attorneys had sought a lighter sentence between 70 and 87 months, while the prosecution sought the maximum of their suggested range of 210 to 262 months.

Andrew Mohring, an attorney for Shariff, argued that his client was not as prominent a member as others in the scheme. He said Shariff’s past as a mentor and youth teacher for computer science and basketball should be factored into the sentencing.

“He was a smaller part of a larger collective of activities,” Mohring said.

Joe Thompson, the U.S. prosecutor who spoke at the sentencing, rejected the notion that Shariff was a more minor participant in the scheme. He said the 34-year-old was a major participant who sometimes had lower-level participants carry out tasks.

“That’s how a conspiracy works, you bring in other people,” Thompson said. “That’s not a mitigating factor, that’s part of the fraud scheme.”

Along with the change in tone from Shariff’s initial testimony, Brasel said, she factored in the defendant having secretly recorded witness testimony during the trial, in violation of court rules.

After the proceedings, Mohring declined to comment other than to say Shariff will appeal his sentence.

Thompson said the prison term shows the court is “sending a message that enough is enough.”