MINNEAPOLIS — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Minnesota), published as received.
MINNEAPOLIS – Today, United States District Judge Nancy E. Brasel sentenced Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, age 24, to 120 months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release for his role in the $300 million Feeding Our Future case, the largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the United States, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen. Nur was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $47,920,514.
As demonstrated at trial, Nur and his co-defendants stole more than $47 million in program funds by claiming to serve 18 million meals to kids at more than 30 food distribution sites. The scheme originated out of Empire Cuisine & Market, a small storefront halal market in Shakopee. Empire Cuisine enrolled in the Federal Child Nutrition Program in April 2020—during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and within weeks of registering the company with the Minnesota Secretary of State.
Nur and his co-conspirators immediately opened several federal child nutrition program sites and began claiming—falsely—to be serving meals to thousands of children per day. These claims were fraudulent. As the Court heard repeatedly at trial, no meals at all were served at many of the Empire Cuisine “sites.” Many of their purported food “sites” were nothing more than parking lots or vacant commercial spaces. Indeed, at some of the sites, it was instead the Shakopee Public Schools who were actually serving meals to kids on a daily basis.
Nur played a key role in the fraud scheme. He created and submitted the bulk of the fraudulent meal counts and invoices that he and his co-conspirators used to support their fraudulent claims. Nur also created and submitted fraudulent rosters purporting to list the names of children receiving meals at their fraudulent meal sites. But, as the Court saw, the rosters were fraudulent, filled with the names of fake children.
Nur and his co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to launder the proceeds of their fraud scheme using a series of shell companies both in the United States and Kenya. Nur helped distribute millions of dollars in fraudulent proceeds among their money laundering entities. Nur also set up his own shell company—Nur Consulting LLC—that he used to receive and launder his share of the fraud proceeds by disguising them as “consulting” and similar payments. In all, Nur used Nur Consulting to receive more than $900,000 in fraud proceeds.
Nur spent his fraud proceeds freely. Using the taxpayer money meant for needy kids, he purchased a 2021 Dodge Ram pickup truck for $64,000. Six weeks later, he purchased a 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe for $35,000. Nur used fraud proceeds to take a honeymoon to the Maldives, where he stayed in a private villa. He also spent $30,000 in fraud proceeds to purchase jewelry in Dubai.
Finally, as the jury heard at trial, Nur used some of his fraud proceeds to fraudulently obtain a college degree. In 2021, Nur enrolled in Herzing University, an online college with campuses in St. Louis Park and other locations around the country. Nur paid $12,000 to a company called PayMeToDoYourHomework.com to take his courses for him and complete all homework assignments and exams. They guaranteed him an A or B in each course.
Nur paid the company approximately $5,000 to take all his Fall 2021 courses for him. In January 2022, he paid another $6,000 to have the company take all his Spring 2022 semester courses. He made these payments via Nur Consulting, the shell company he created to receive and launder his fraud proceeds. Nur appears to have gotten his money’s worth. Nur received a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management from Herzing University in August 2022. Despite having graduated from Shakopee High School in 2019 with only a 1.75 GPA, Herzing University records show that Nur “earned” his bachelor’s degree in less than 3 years with a 3.42 GPA.
In June 2024, at the conclusion of his 7-week trial, Nur and others attempted to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash in exchange for a not guilty verdict. Nur and four others were indicted in a separate federal case for the juror bribery scheme. Nur has pled guilty in the juror bribery case and is pending sentencing in that case before United States District Judge David S. Doty. Today’s sentence does not reflect Nur’s attempt to bribe a juror; he will face an additional sentence in that case at a later date.
In imposing the 10-year sentence, Judge Brasel told Nur, “It is so disappointing and so disheartening that where others saw a crisis and rushed to help, you saw money and rushed to steal.” She called that choice “mindboggling.” Judge Brasel explained that “this fraud conspiracy was both and at once elaborate and blatant,” and that Nur made the choice to steal again and again.
The case is the result of an investigation by the FBI, IRS – Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph H. Thompson, Harry M. Jacobs, and Daniel W. Bobier prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Baune is handling the seizure and forfeiture of assets.
