Feeding Our Future fraud suspect arrested before boarding flight for Dubai, charges say
Another person has been arrested in connection tied to the largest pandemic fraud scheme in the country.
In an FBI agent's 23-page affidavit, investigators say Hibo Daar, 50, used a Gmail account to carry out wire fraud in submitting falsified business records to Feeding Our Future. According to court documents, Daar has been charged with two counts of wire fraud.
Prosecutors say that, because there were no Google servers in Minnesota, the fraud traveled across state lines. They also found evidence of outlandish numbers on their invoices.
According to court documents, Daar's food site, Northside Wellness Center, claimed to serve 52,000 meals in the month of January 2021.
Prosecutors say by April of that same year, they claimed to serve 40,000 meals every week. Another vendor invoice submitted by Northside Wellness claimed they bought 3,000 gallons of milk in a single month.
The business asked for over $2.4 million in reimbursement claims, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota. A bank account that Daar controlled received more than $1.7 million from those claims.
The attorney's office, citing financial records, said Daar used a "tiny portion" of that money to purchase food, and transferred the majority to family, associates and herself. She paid $72,000 in bribes to a Feeding Our Future employee to make sure the reimbursement claims were processed.
Federal agents took Daar into custody at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport before she could board a flight to Dubai, officials said. She's scheduled to appear in a detention hearing on June 4.
Last week, there was another raid at New Vision Foundation. Court documents say the nonprofit claimed to serve thousands of meals to children daily in St. Paul and Waite Park.
Neighboring business owners told investigators they didn't see kids at the locations.
There are no charges tied to that St. Paul raid at this time.
Forty-four defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted in the Justice Department's Feeding Our Future investigation, which includes Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock.
Bock's appeal remains ongoing.
In all, the scheme diverted $250 million in federal funds during a time when the rules were relaxed in order to keep the U.S. economy running.
