Two more plead guilty in Feeding Our Future fraud scheme

Two more people pleaded guilty this week to their roles in the $250 million federal food aid fraud case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future.

Sixty people have been charged and four have pleaded guilty in total so far in the case, which authorities have recognized as the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation. Yusuf Ali, 41, of Vadnais Heights and Sahra Nur, 62, of St. Anthony pleaded guilty this week; Abdikadir Kadiye, 51, of Minneapolis, and Qamar Hassan, 54, of Brooklyn Park pleaded guilty last month.

The four pleaded guilty in federal court to charges including money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, admitting to misusing millions of dollars in federal child nutrition program funds between 2020 and 2022, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said in a Friday news release. The funds were intended as reimbursement for the costs of serving meals to needy children.

Nur admitted to being one of the owners and operators of S&S Catering Inc., which claimed to have served over 1.2 million meals but only served a "fraction" of that number, despite receiving federal reimbursement, according to the news release. Hassan was another owner and operator of S&S Catering.

Kadiye submitted more than $1.1 million in fraudulent claims for child nutrition program funds as president of Hobyo Health Care Foundation, according to the release. He spent the money on residential and commercial real estate, including a laundromat, and vehicles, including a BMW worth over $100,000, the release said.

Ali and his co-conspirators ran a site called Youth Inventors Lab, which was enrolled in the federal child nutrition program and fraudulently claimed it served more than 1.3 million meals. It received over $3 million in reimbursement funds, the release said.

Sentencing hearings will be scheduled at a later time.