Man, 36, becomes 78th person charged in Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, attorney's office says
A 36-year-old man has become the 78th person charged in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota said Abdirashid Bixi Dool is charged with four counts of wire fraud and three counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.
According to the federal indictment, Dool co-operated and served on the boards of two Minnesota nonprofits, Bilaal Mosque Inc. and Multicultural Resource Center Inc. He was the president of the latter.
Dool and another person, identified as a conspirator, applied in March 2021 to operate the two businesses as food program sites under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, court documents said. Meals at sites across Minnesota during the COVID-19 pandemic were funded by the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
Dool claimed to operate both sites — the Bilaal Mosque food site in Pelican Rapids and the Multicultural Resource Center food site in Moorhead.
According to the indictment, Dool, at times, completed meal count sheets that said over 40,000 meals were being served to children every week.
"However, as Dool knew, those meal counts were false and inflated," the indictment said.
He then submitted the meal count sheets for reimbursement, court documents said.
Prosecutors accuse Dool of submitting fraudulent invoices that claimed to list food purchased by both businesses when "very little" food was bought. Court documents said he also turned in fake rosters of the names of children fed at both sites.
Between March 2021 and February 2022, the two nonprofits received around $1.1 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds through Feeding Our Future, the indictment said, though "little of this money" was used to purchase food.
Dool and the conspirator, who controlled the bank accounts of both businesses, transferred "most" of the money to family and Dool, according to court documents. He used the funds to "travel, enrich himself, and buy real estate."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Internal Revenue Service worked to investigate Dool.