MN 'Feeding Our Future' Convict Must Serve 12 Years, Pay $48 Million

MINNEAPOLIS — The first defendant convicted in the six-week jury trial over the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison, U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced Tuesday.

Mohamed Jama Ismail, 51, of Savage, was also ordered to pay $48 million in restitution.

Ismail's sentence comes after he was convicted by a jury on June 7 on one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering.

"The taxpayers in Minnesota are rightfully outraged by the brazenness and the scope of [Ismail’s] crime," U.S. District Court Judge Nancy E. Brasel said when handing down the sentence Tuesday.

"The evidence at trial was frankly breathtaking."

Brasel emphasized that during a disaster, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, "many of us were taught to look for the helpers." However, when the world was at its most vulnerable, Ismail "decided not to be a helper, but to be a thief."

Evidence presented at trial

Ismail owned and operated Empire Cuisine, a restaurant involved in a scheme that helped launder illegal funds.

Through Empire Cuisine, Ismail and his co-defendants received over $40 million in fraudulent funds from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Those funds were meant to reimburse businesses for providing meals to needy children.

To carry out the scheme, they created and submitted false documents to the federal government, including fake meal count sheets that falsely reported the number of children and meals served at various sites.

They also submitted fraudulent invoices claiming to show the purchase of food for these meals, as well as fake attendance rosters listing nonexistent children’s names and ages who supposedly received meals each day.

Also read: New details are out after a woman pleaded guilty to her role in providing a $120,000 bribe to a juror in the Feeding Our Future trial.