A Minneapolis man accused of stealing $4 million from the Federal Little one Nutrition Program throughout the Covid-19 pandemic surrendered to the FBI on Thursday, federal officers announced.
Acknowledged Abdullahi Ereg was as soon as indicted on June 24, 2024, on costs alongside side conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and cash laundering.
Ereg is accused of acquiring, misappropriating and laundering hundreds of thousands of greenbacks supposed to feed younger folks in want, officers talked about in an announcement.
“This present day’s arrest is ancient,” FBI Director Kash Patel talked about in a distinct inform.
It was as soon as now not all of a sudden positive whether Ereg has a prison educated.
Ereg was as soon as added to the Justice Department’s “Most Wanted Fraudster” checklist remaining week and is the predominant particular person to be arrested, Patel talked about.
Federal officers established the checklist to “raise to justice the alleged worst of the worst who took merit of American taxpayers and stole public funds, and allow them to know that the days of Washington, D.C. turning a blind come across to fraud are over,” Patel talked about in the inform.
Officials talked about Ereg ran a grocery store and deli in Minneapolis that was as soon as subsidized by the nonprofit group Feeding Our Future. The group, founded in Minnesota in 2016, has lately been at the center of a federal investigation into what federal officers possess known as “the single glorious COVID-19 fraud blueprint in the nation.”
Aimee Block, extinct chief of Feeding Our Future, was as soon as convicted remaining month in a $250 million fraud case that helped ignite an immigration crackdown by the Trump administration.
The neighborhood was as soon as phase of a trim fraud network that incorporated partner organizations, false distribution sites, kickbacks and false lists of younger folks supposedly being fed, prosecutors talked about in Block’s indictment.
Ereg is presupposed to possess participated in the blueprint throughout a one-one year interval starting up in 2020. He is accused of submitting false reimbursement claims and receiving better than $4.2 million in federal funds.
A federal arrest warrant was as soon as issued after Ereg was as soon as charged, but he was as soon as living international, and his whereabouts had been now not diagnosed.
He surrendered to FBI brokers at Minneapolis-St. Paul World Airport.
“This case sends a transparent message: being start air the USA would now not put you previous the reach of HSI and our regulation enforcement partners,” talked about Michael McCarthy, the Fatherland Security Investigations particular agent responsible in Minneapolis. “Our commitment is unwavering: folks that exploit functions supposed to beef up younger folks and households will be identified, investigated, and dropped at justice right here in Minnesota.”
Ereg’s wife, who worked with him, pleaded guilty remaining one year to 1 depend of cash laundering. She is scheduled to be sentenced subsequent week.
