'Bilterms Solutions' Involved In Feeding Our Future Scam: Feds

MINNEAPOLIS — A St. Paul man on Wednesday became the fourth person to plead guilty in the $250 million fraud scheme involving Feeding Our Future, U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced.

The man's business, St. Paul-based Bilterms Solutions was used in the scandal, according to authorities.

Abdul Abubakar Ali, 40, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

From December 2020 through January 2022, Ali help swindle federal funds that were intended as reimbursements for the cost of serving meals to underprivileged children during the COVID-19 pandemic, investigators said.

Ali and his co-conspirators used the nonprofit "Youth Inventors Lab" as a shell company to carry out his scheme, investigators said. Ali enrolled Youth Inventors Lab in the federal food program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, according to authorities.

After enrolling, Ali "immediately" began submitting claims for reimbursement for purportedly serving meals to hundreds or thousands of children a day, investigators said.

Ali created and submitted fake invoices purporting to document the purchase of food from a vendor, S & S Catering, according to authorities.

In reality, S & S Catering did not provide Youth Inventors Lab with any meals and Youth Inventors Lab did not serve any meals to children, investigators said.

Youth Inventors Lab falsely claimed to have served more than 1.3 million meals between December 2020 through June 2021, and they fraudulently received $3,029,786 in reimbursements, according to authorities.

Ali also submitted fake invoices from his company, Bilterms Solutions, to Youth Inventors Lab, investigators said. The invoices were for purportedly providing technology services, but Ali and Bilterms Solutions did not actually perform the services, according to authorities.

The invoices were used to hide the source of the funds that Ali was swindling from the federal government, investigators said.

Ali received approximately $82,000 from Youth Inventors Lab, according to authorities. He received another $47,000 from Franklyn Transportation, a co-conspirator's company that was used in the scheme, investigators said.

Also read: 50th Person Charged In 'Feeding Our Future' Fraud Case: Feds