Shakopee Couple Used Feeding Our Future Cash To Pay Off Mortgage: Feds

SHAKOPEE, MN — A married couple charged in the Feeding Our Future fraud case use their money from the scheme to pay off the mortgage for their home in Shakopee, according to federal authorities.

On Wednesday, Abduljabar Hussein, 42, became the 50th person to be charged in connection with the scheme outlined by federal authorities last month.

Abduljabar Hussein is the husband of 38-year-old Mekfira Hussein. Mekfira was charged in the case on Sept. 19.

They each face a 20-count indictment of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, federal programs bribery, and money laundering.

Together, the couple defrauded the federal government and used their stolen millions on luxury vehicles, and paid off the mortgage on their Shakopee house, investigators said.

Their home in Shakopee was purchased in 2017 for $419,000, according to Scott County records.

The two couple paid thousands of dollars in kickbacks to Abdikerm Eidleh, a Feeding Our Future employee, according to authorities. In exchange for the kickbacks, Eidleh made sure that Feeding Our Future would sponsor the Husseins' companies, allowing federal dollars to pour in, investigators said.

Mekfira was the president and owner of Shamsia Hopes, a nonprofit in Brooklyn Center sponsored by Feeding Our Future, authorities said.

Abduljabar created a company — Oromia Feeds LLC — that claimed to provide food to children at Shamsia Hopes sites in Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, and Fridley, according to investigators.

Between 2020 and 2022, Mekfira falsely claimed that Shamsia Hopes was serving as many as 5,000 children a day, seven days a week, authorities said.

To support the fraudulent claims, Mekfira submitted fake meal counts and fake invoices purporting to document the purchase of food, according to investigators.

Meanwhile, Abduljabar submitted invoices fraudulently claiming that Oromia Feeds LLC was entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursements from a federal government nutrition fund intended for needy kids, authorities said.

Abduljabar falsely claimed that Oromia Feeds LLC was providing meals to be served at the Shamsia Hopes sites, according to investigators.

Mekfira diverted at least $5.4 million in federal child nutrition program funds to her husband's company, Oromia Feeds LLC, which actually spent only a small fraction of that money on food, authorities said.

Between 2020 and 2021, Shamsia Hopes falsely claimed to have served more than 3.4 million meals to children but, in reality, served only a fraction of that, according to investigators.

The couple falsely claimed that Shamsia Hopes was entitled to more than $10.4 million in federal funds, authorities said.

Shamsia Hopes ultimately received about $7.8 million and Oromia Feeds LLC received nearly $1 million from the federal government, investigators said.