Feeding Our Future fraud investigation: First guilty pleas expected

Guilty pleas are expected Thursday for three of the people charged in an alleged massive scheme to steal and launder at least $250 million in federal funds intended to feed needy children.

Court records show Bekam Addissu Merdassa, Hadith Yusuf Ahmed and Hanna Marekegn, all charged with wire fraud, would become the first defendants to admit guilt in the sprawling investigation around Feeding Our Future.

Authorities say the Twin Cities-based nonprofit stood at the center of a network of shell companies controlled by people who used federal child nutrition money to buy cars, luxury goods, jewelry and property in the United States, Kenya and Turkey.

Forty-nine people allegedly connected to Feeding Our Future are accused of submitting wildly inflated reimbursement claims for meals they never served to children who didn’t exist.

Andrew Luger, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, has described it as a “brazen scheme of staggering proportions” that faked some 125 million meals at sites across Minnesota.

Some, including Feeding our Future founder Aimee Bock, are accused of taking kickbacks from the operators of purported meal sites. Most of the defendants, including Bock, have pleaded not guilty.

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