A Minnesota judge sentenced Ahmed Ghedi and Abdihakim Ahmed on Wednesday for their roles in the feeding our future fraud scheme. Ghedi received more than five years in prison, and Ahmed got four and a half years as the case moved another step forward.
The sentences add to a sprawling case that prosecutors say diverted COVID relief funds meant for child nutrition. The investigation has already produced dozens of convictions, including Amee Bock, who was sentenced in May to nearly 42 years in prison after telling federal court, "I understand I failed. I failed the public, my family, everyone."
Ahmed Ghedi and Abdihakim Ahmed
Prosecutors said the pair helped run Feeding Our Future, which claimed to be giving food to thousands of children each day in the Twin Cities area. The judge ordered Ahmed to pay $2,242,590 in restitution and Ghedi to pay $2,862,451, adding a financial penalty on top of the prison terms.
The money at issue totaled $7.3 million in COVID relief funds. Prosecutors said it was used to buy a car and property and to share cash with a Feeding Our Future employee, tying the sentence to specific losses rather than a general fraud count.
Amee Bock and the scheme
Bock was convicted of orchestrating $250 million in pandemic relief fraud. Prosecutors told the court the nonprofit functioned as a cash pipeline, with fake distribution sites, fabricated lists of children, and kickbacks carrying the fraud forward.
That contradiction sits at the center of the case: Feeding Our Future said it was feeding thousands of children each day, while prosecutors said the operation moved money through fake paperwork and false sites instead of meals. The sentencing of Ghedi and Ahmed shows the case is still producing prison terms and restitution orders years after the scheme came to light.
For readers following the case, the immediate change is simple: two more defendants are now headed to prison, and the court has assigned restitution amounts that put a dollar figure on part of the loss. The larger unresolved question is how much of the $250 million scheme was tied specifically to Ahmed Ghedi and Abdihakim Ahmed.
