A Rochester woman has admitted her involvement in a $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick announced the guilty plea.
Court documents reveal that from December 2020 to January 2022, Ayan Jama, aged 45, was part of a plan to defraud a federal child nutrition program meant to provide free meals to children in need. Instead of feeding children, the defendants misappropriated millions of dollars from the program for personal gain.
Jama was one of the principals at Brava Rochester in Minnesota. In September 2020, Brava Restaurant and Aimee Bock applied for enrollment in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under Bock's non-profit organization, Feeding Our Future. The application paperwork was prepared by a co-conspirator under Salim Said's direction, who co-owned Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis—another business involved in defrauding the food program.
From late 2020 through 2021, Jama and other conspirators falsely claimed that Brava Restaurant served between 2,000 and 3,000 daily meals to children. They submitted fake attendance rosters with fabricated names or incorrect numbers of children fed. Jama’s plea agreement reveals she falsely claimed over 1.7 million meals were served within just over a year. Consequently, Feeding Our Future disbursed more than $5.3 million based on these fraudulent claims.
Jama received $4.3 million directly from Feeding Our Future and over $900,000 from Safari Restaurant owned by Salim Said as part of this scheme.
To facilitate their activities, Jama and her conspirators set up shell companies to receive funds from the federal child nutrition program. On January 7, 2021, Salim Said registered six shell companies with Minnesota state authorities for Jama and others; East Africa LLC was registered for Jama specifically.
In total, at least $407,070 was deposited into East Africa LLC accounts using misappropriated funds intended for child nutrition programs.
The funds were used by Jama for personal expenses unrelated to feeding children: purchasing homes in Rochester and Columbus as well as property on Turkey's Mediterranean Coast totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
Last Friday before Chief Judge Patrick J Schiltz at U.S District Court., Jama pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges; her sentencing will be scheduled later
This case resulted from investigations conducted by FBI agents alongside IRS Criminal Investigations division members plus those working within U.S Postal Inspection Service ranks
Assistant U S Attorneys Matthew S Ebert Joseph H Thompson Harry M Jacobs are prosecuting while Craig Baune handles asset seizure forfeiture processes