Burnsville Woman Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud in $250 Million Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme

MINNEAPOLIS - A Burnsville woman has pleaded guilty to her role in the $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally-funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

According to court documents, Hoda Ali Abdi, 53, was the owner of Alif Halal LLC ("Alif Halal"), a grocery store located in Burnsville, which she enrolled as a food vendor in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future and Sponsor A. Between January 2021 through 2023, Abdi falsely claimed to have provided approximately $3 million worth of food for children through other co-conspirator's sites. Abdi provided these co-conspirators with fake Alif Halal invoices that purported to show that Alif Halal had provided substantial amounts of food when, in reality, Abdi provided little or no food. As part of her guilty plea, Abdi admitted that some of her co-conspirators tried to cover up the fraud by directing her to lie to investigators by asserting, falsely, that Alif Halal had provided food to the co-conspirators' respective businesses. Abdi also claimed, falsely, to have served more than 242,000 meals to children at her Burnsville site. Ultimately, Abdi received $1,275,710 in proceeds, which includes payments from the co-conspirators who received fake Alif Halal invoices.

Abdi, who is the 18^th defendant to plead guilty to charges relating to the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, appeared yesterday in U.S. District Court before Judge Nancy E. Brasel and pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later time.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI, IRS - Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew S. Ebert, Joseph H. Thompson, Chelsea A. Walcker, and Harry M. Jacobs are prosecuting the case.