Abdiaziz Farah was convicted on 23 felony counts of conspiracy, fraud, and related crimes in the first of the Feeding Our Future trials last year. I covered the trial and reported the guilty verdict here at the time. The government asked for a 30-year sentence. Granting most of the government’s wish and agreeing with its argument in its entirety, Judge Nancy Brasel sentenced Farah in federal district court here yesterday to 28 years in prison.
Farah concocted the shocking juror bribery scheme that was discovered at the conclusion of his trial last year. He has pleaded guilty in the bribery case before Judge David Doty and will be sentenced separately for the offense. That sentence should be added to the 28 years he received yesterday.
I attended Farah’s sentencing hearing yesterday. The court was full of Farah’s family, supporters, and federal law enforcement agents who testified at trial. I sat in the press row immediately in front of Farah’s crying wife. It was quite a scene.
Joe Thompson is the Acting United States Attorney and the lead prosecutor in the Feeding Our Future case. He asked for the 30-year sentence in an unrelenting 19-page sentencing memorandum and a 16-page reply memorandum. He was clearly gratified that Judge Brasel agreed with his arguments and administered an appropriately harsh sentence.
The Department of Justice press release calls it a landmark sentence. I took copious notes but the press release does a highly professional job of capturing the relevant details. Let’s go to the press release:
United States District Judge Nancy E. Brasel sentenced Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, age 36, to 28 years in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release for his role in a $300 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson. Farah was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $47,920,514.
Farah played a leading role in the Feeding Our Future case, the largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the United States. According to public documents, Farah and his co-defendants stole more than $47 million in program funds by claiming to serve 18 million meals to kids at more than 30 food distribution sites. In June 2024, after a seven-week trial before Judge Brasel, a federal jury convicted Farah of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, false statements in a passport application, conspiracy to commit money laundering, two counts of federal programs bribery, six counts of wire fraud, and 11 counts of money laundering.
Farah was the co-owner of Empire Cuisine & Market, an entity that he enrolled in the Federal Child Nutrition Program in April 2020, during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Farah was among the very first defendants to see an opportunity for fraud and exploit it. Farah immediately opened a number of fraudulent program sites and began falsely claiming to serve meals to thousands of children per day. Many of the purported “sites” served no meals at all and were nothing more than parking lots or vacant commercial spaces.
Farah and his co-defendants “papered-up” the fraudulent scheme, including by creating and submitting fraudulent meal counts and invoices. Farah was likewise involved in the scheme’s use of phony rosters with fake children’s names. Few of the names on the rosters matched the names of real students attending the local school districts, and many of the names used by Farah were absurd and obviously fake, names like “Serious Problem” and “Britishy Melony.” In addition, Farah routinely directed the flow of fraudulent funds so that his co-conspirators got their “cuts” of the stolen taxpayer money. To keep the fraud going, Farah engaged in a corrupt “pay-to-play” system, where he paid thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to personnel at Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition.
Farah profited handsomely from his role in the scheme—he personally pocketed more than $8 million during his 18 months of involvement in the fraud. As presented at trial, Farah sent text messages to his co-defendants about their ill-gotten gains, stating “in 7 months if things stay the same you are a multi millionaire with 0 debt” and “Bro the next multi legit millionaires will be me and you.”
Using the taxpayer money meant for needy kids, Farah purchased five luxury vehicles for himself in about six months, including over $300,000 for a Porsche, a GMC truck, and a Tesla. Farah used approximately $4.2 million in fraudulently-obtained taxpayer funds to purchase real estate throughout the Twin Cities and in Kentucky, which included buying two lakefront lots with the aim of building himself a multi-million-dollar home. Farah further sent the taxpayer money he stole overseas, purchasing real estate in Kenya and a high-rise apartment building in Nairobi. Farah laundered the fraud proceeds through China. This overseas money is beyond the reach of American law enforcement—neither these funds nor Farah’s international real estate holdings have been, or can be, seized or forfeited.
In January 2022, when the Feeding Our Future search warrants were executed, federal agents seized Farah’s U.S. passport from his home. In the wake of those searches, Farah retained an attorney and was told he was a target of the federal investigation. Two months later, on March 22, 2022, Farah went to the Minneapolis Passport Agency in downtown Minneapolis to apply for a new U.S. passport. Farah lied on his passport application, falsely claiming his passport was lost, rather than seized by federal agents. Farah obtained a new U.S. passport that day. Less than two weeks later, Farah attempted to leave the country, purchasing a one-way ticket to Kenya, where he owned property paid for by the taxpayer money he stole. Law enforcement acted quickly to charge Farah with passport fraud and take him into custody.
In June 2024, at the conclusion of his 7-week trial, Farah and others attempted to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash in exchange for a not guilty verdict. Farah and four others were indicted in a separate federal case for the juror bribery scheme. Farah has pled guilty in the juror bribery case and is pending sentencing in that case before Judge David S. Doty. Today’s sentence does not reflect Farah’s attempt to bribe a juror; he will face an additional sentence in that case at a later date.
In imposing the 28-year sentence, Judge Brasel explained the defendant “came to this country as a refugee” and that “many of the opportunities” in Farah’s life came through public agencies and non-profit organizations, noting that Farah received housing, school, a full-tuition college grant, and worked in the public sector. “Given that background, it is ironic at best that, as the government aimed no child went hungry during the pandemic, you saw the opportunity to fraudulently make money.” Judge Brasel continued, “You achieved successes here in the United States and yet you’ve shown utter and flagrant disregard for the laws of the United States.”
Judge Brasel found that Farah’s crime was “breathtakingly elaborate” and that he acted out of “pure unmitigated greed.” She told the defendant, “The repercussions of your crime will be felt in Minnesota and in your community—the refugee community—for a long time.”
In arguing for a long sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said, “This country gave Farah everything. A home. Citizenship. A free college education. After that he went on to public employment with the state of Minnesota. And how did he repay this country and this state? By robbing us blind. He has gotten every opportunity, and this is how he used it. Farah didn’t want the American dream. He wanted to be rich. He wanted to be wealthy. He thought he was entitled to it. He won the lottery of life, he was given everything by this country, and he repaid us with a life of crime. He has done untold damage to this state.”
Thompson hammered the fact that Farah still owns an apartment building in Nairobi. He has made no effort to turn it over to the government for restitution.
I told Thompson outside the courtroom after the hearing that I felt he was speaking for me at the hearing. He said he was speaking for all of us.
Farah’s attorneys spoke at the hearing. When they were done, Farah spoke emotionally on his own behalf. He told the story of his departure from Somalia, his long stay at a refugee camp in Kenya, the murder of his mother in Somalia, the departure of his father from Kenya for the United States to pave the way for his family to join him, and his arrival in the United States years later. He apologized to his wife. He apologized to his community. He apologized to Minnesota and to the United States. He mentioned the four children he is leaving behind as he pleaded for mercy.
He thanked Judge Brasel for respecting his faith by accommodating his prayer times during trial. He has plenty of time to pray for an acquittal, but he knew he was guilty as hell. Thus the juror bribery scheme.
What about us?
Listening closely, Judge Brasel noted that Farah had said nothing about his commission of the numerous crimes for which he had been convicted and was to be sentenced. It was astounding. The Star Tribune remains silent on this point in its story on the sentencing.
I told Joe Thompson outside the courtroom immediately after the hearing that I felt he had been speaking for me. He said he was speaking for all of us.
A few minutes later Thompson met KARE 11’s Lou Raguse, MPR’s Matt Sepic, and me in the courthouse lobby to answer a few questions on camera. Lou’s story is posted here. Sepic’s story is here. The KARE 11 video is below.
When the camera was turned off, I asked Joe if he had heard from Governor Walz or Attorney General Ellison thanking him for his work on the case. He responded: “No comment.”
