A Lakeville man has admitted to wire fraud in connection with a $250 million scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, as announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick.
Court documents reveal that Abdinasir Mahamed Abshir, 33, falsely claimed to operate a child nutrition site named Stigma-Free Mankato in Mankato, Minnesota. Under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, Abshir reported serving meals to 3,000 children daily from J’s Sambusa restaurant. He also created Horseed Management as a shell company purportedly acting as a meal vendor for his site. From November 2020 to November 2021, he and co-conspirators allegedly served about 1.6 million meals through fraudulent claims.
The conspirators submitted fake meal counts and invoices and misappropriated funds intended for feeding children. Abshir transferred millions from Horseed Management to himself and others, including into another shell company he established called Calikamin Enterprise. He used some proceeds to buy a Range Rover, which has been seized for forfeiture.
Abshir reportedly paid over $100,000 in bribes and kickbacks to Abdikerm Eidleh of Feeding Our Future for facilitating the fraudulent operation's participation in the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Feeding Our Future received nearly $420,000 in administrative fees from this arrangement. In December 2021, Abshir contributed $5,750 to a GoFundMe account set up by Aimee Bock for Feeding Our Future.
Stigma-Free Mankato obtained more than $5.4 million based on these false claims.
On February 18, 2025, Abshir attempted witness tampering related to United States v. Aimee Bock and Salim Said by approaching a cooperating witness at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis before they testified.
Abshir pleaded guilty before Judge Nancy E. Brasel in U.S District Court today and acknowledged an enhancement will apply due to his obstruction of justice attempt via witness tampering. His sentencing hearing is yet to be scheduled.
The FBI led the investigation alongside IRS – Criminal Investigations and the U.S Postal Inspection Service.
Assistant U.S Attorneys Joseph H Thompson, Matthew S Ebert, Harry M Jacobs, Daniel W Bobier are prosecuting; Assistant U.S Attorney Craig Baune manages asset seizure and forfeiture.