Omar Linked to Somali Charged in $250M “Feeding Our Future” Fraud Scheme

Far-left Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota faces renewed scrutiny about her role in the Feeding Our Future food-fraud scandal centered in her Somali-dominated district.

The latest on that $250 million theft of tax money, mostly by Somali crooks, broke on June 26 with the arrest of Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh. Eidleh, the federal indictment against him alleges, was one of the scheme’s masterminds, along with Feeding Our Future foundress Aimee Bock. She was sentenced to almost 42 years in federal prison.

Bock recently told the New York Post that Omar knew about the fraud, which means she was a co-conspirator. Understandably, Omar refused to answer questions about the fraud that are detailed in a subpoena from state lawmakers.

An effort by Minnesota state Representative Kristin Robbins, head of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, to subpoena Omar failed.

The Scheme

The Feeding Our Future scam robbed the federal taxpayers of some $250 million in federal food subsidies. Omar’s role was sponsoring successful legislation that expanded access to nutrition programs during the Covid-19 Plandemic.

As The New American reported in April, citing The Center Square, Minnesota lawmakers want Omar to answer questions about what — if any — role she played in the scheme. Omar sponsored a giveaway called the MEALS Act, which dropped security measures designed to stop fraud, the website noted:

“She took the guardrails off so billions of our tax dollars could be stolen,” Robbins said. “It was her particular bill … that got rid of the guardrails in this program.”

During the hearing, Robbins played a 2020 clip of Omar promoting the program to Somali-speaking constituents and praising a Minneapolis restaurant later tied to the fraud.

“I’m very thankful for Safari for being part of those places where food is being given out,” Omar said in the video. “Each day, Safari gives out 2,300 family and kids’ meals.”

That restaurant’s co-owner, Salim Said, oversaw the fraud with Bock. He robbed taxpayers of $16 million and has not been sentenced. In May, a judge sentenced Bock to almost 42 years in prison. 

The Feeding Our Future program involved at least 78 defendants. Sixty-five have been convicted, two of them in April. 

One of the fraudsters, a federal indictment alleges, is Eidleh. “The indictment alleges 31 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, federal programs bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering,” the Justice Department reported when it collared the African fugitive:

According to court documents, Eidleh was an employee of Feeding Our Future who was responsible for recruiting and supporting Federal Child Nutrition Program sites under Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship. He and other Feeding Our Future employees solicited and received bribes and kickbacks from individuals and companies seeking approval to operate fraudulent Federal Child Nutrition Program sites. The indictment describes Feeding Our Future as operating a pay‑to‑play scheme in which operators of fraudulent meal sites kicked back a portion of their illicit proceeds to employees, including Eidleh, often disguised as “consulting fees” through shell companies.

The indictment alleges that Eidleh created his own Federal Child Nutrition Program sites in the name of nominee owners and fraudulently claimed that the sites were serving meals to thousands of children per day. He also created shell companies purporting to be meal vendors for those sites and created and submitted fraudulent invoices to obtain, misappropriate, and defraud federal nutrition program funds. Eidleh deposited more than $5 million in kickbacks, bribes, and other fraud proceeds into accounts associated with his shell companies, using them to conceal the true nature and source of the illegally obtained funds.

The FBI and Somalia’s National Security and Intelligence Agency bagged him in Mogadishu.

Omar’s Role, Robbins Seeks Federal Help

Bock says Omar knew about the scheme. Again, Omar’s means of removing the guardrails to stop fraud, the New York Post noted for its interview with Bock, was the MEALS Act. It “allowed the US Department of Agriculture to issue waivers of school-meal requirements during the pandemic.”

“The waivers dramatically eased oversight of the federal programs by allowing restaurants to participate without any of the usual site inspections,” the newspaper continued.

Omar was ever-ready to keep pushing for waivers “whenever those waivers ran out, allowing the rampant fraud to continue,” Bock told the Post:

“There had been a couple times early on that there were some gaps — a waiver would be set to expire on maybe the 15th of a month, and then the renewal didn’t kick in until the 1st,” Bock claimed. “Because of course this was supposed to be a short-term thing … we were supposed to be home for two weeks.”

The food-fraud sites “were working directly with her, being that a lot of the operators were from the same Somali community,” Bock said.

Last month, Robbins wrote to U.S. House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chieftain of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Oversight subcommittee.

Robbins explained that “Omar has documented ties to criminals convicted in the Feeding Our Future case, including holding her 2018 election party at the Safari Restaurant and appearing in a video promoting the MEALS Act, which was filmed at the Safari Restaurant.”

“Several text and email exchanges between Rep. Omar’s office and the defendants in the case were listed in the trial exhibits” in Bock’s court case, Robbins told the legislators. 

Listed in the failed subpoena, those exhibits included these emails that link Omar to Bock and Eidleh:

• “February 5, 2021 email chain between Aimee Bock and Ali Isse, cc Natasha Rice of Representative Ilhan Omar’s office, subject, Re: Help with USDA Food Program s;”

• “February 18, 2021 email from Aimee Bock to Abdikerm Eidleh, subject: Ilhan’s Office.”

Because her committee would not subpoena Omar, Robbins has asked Comer and Cruz to request or subpoena the same information.

Facing Felony Charges

If, as Bock says, Omar knew about the scheme and did nothing to stop it, she faces several possible felony charges:

Misprision of a felony: “Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”

Making false statements: “Whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully … falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact; … makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or … makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry; shall be fined under this title [or] imprisoned not more than 5 years. …”

Aiding and abetting: “Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal. …”

According to U.S. Code, “Whoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense against the United States, is punishable as a principal.”