A Minnesota man facing charges in one of the largest fraud cases in the state’s history has been apprehended overseas. Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, 42, of Burnsville, Minnesota, was taken into custody Thursday in Mogadishu, Somalia, according to U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen.
Eidleh is among dozens of individuals indicted back in 2022 in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud a federal meals program out of approximately $250 million. Court records do not indicate whether he has legal representation, and he has not yet had the chance to enter a plea.
Prosecutors say Eidleh worked for an organization called Feeding Our Future, which claimed to be distributing millions of meals to children in need during the pandemic through a federal child nutrition program. However, authorities allege that only a small fraction of the federal dollars actually went toward feeding children. The rest, they say, was funneled through shell companies and used to purchase real estate, luxury vehicles, and fund travel.
Specifically, Eidleh is accused of fabricating child nutrition program sites, falsely reporting that thousands of children were being fed there each day, and setting up shell companies that posed as meal vendors at those locations. He faces 31 counts in total, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, federal programs bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering.
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Department of Justice’s National Fraud Enforcement Division described Eidleh as a central figure in what he called “one of the largest fraud schemes in Minnesota history.”
“He not only stole taxpayer dollars, but he also robbed vulnerable children of critical resources they desperately needed. Rather than answer for his crimes in the United States, he fled to Somalia in a futile attempt to evade justice,” McDonald said.
President Donald Trump previously cited this fraud case as part of his reasoning for initiating a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota late last year.
