Man Raked In Nearly $7.5M In 'Feeding Our Future' Fraud Scheme: Feds

MINNEAPOLIS — Another Minneapolis man has pleaded guilty to his role in the $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally-funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced Thursday.

Ahmed Sharif Omar-Hashim, also known as Salah Donyale, 40, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to one count of wire fraud. He is the 16th guilty plea made in the $250 million "Feeding Our Future" fraud scheme.

A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Omar-Hashim admitted that from April 2020 through January 2022, he defrauded the federal child nutrition program set up to provide free meals to children in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to authorities, Omar-Hashim and his co-conspirators pocketed nearly $7,500,000 from the scheme.

In September 2020, Omar-Hashim created a shell company called Olive Management Inc., under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future.

He submitted fake meal count sheets and invoices for federal reimbursement, and a fake attendance roster purporting to list the names of 2,040 children who attended the Olive Management site’s "after-school program."

Olive Management purported to operate a federal child nutrition program site in St. Cloud that served meals to 3,000 children a day, seven days a week.

In total, Omar-Hashim fraudulently claimed to have served more than 1.6 million meals to children at the Olive Management site.

Of the approximately 2,040 names on the list, only approximately 20 matched the names of children attending school in the St. Cloud Public School District, prosecutors said.