Man who claimed to serve 1.7 million meals to children in fraud scheme sentenced to 43 months

A 65-year-old man who claimed to serve meals to hungry children but instead pocketed federal funds to buy a house in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, was sentenced to 43 months in prison on Thursday.

Abdullahe Nur Jesow pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering in October. The judge also ordered him to pay more than $860,000 in restitution. 

Court documents say that between December 2020 and September 2021, Jesow purported to operate a Federal Child Nutrition Program meal distribution site, operated by a nonprofit called Academy for Youth Excellence, on Lake Street in Minneapolis. 

During those months, the nonprofit claimed to have served over 1.7 million meals to children. Academy for Youth Excellence and its alleged food vendor, S&S Catering, received more than $4.2 million in federal funds. Jesow used the funds for his own benefit by buying a home in Columbia Heights, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

"The sentence handed down today should be a clear message to those who would seek to enrich themselves by defrauding critical child nutrition programs," said FBI Minneapolis Division Special Agent in Charge Christopher D. Dotson. "The FBI and our investigative partners have and will continue to direct significant investigative resources to rooting out fraud in the programs that support and sustain our children and our communities."

Jesow was the 56th person to plead guilty in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.