WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice announced Friday that its National Fraud Enforcement Division (NFED) thwarted fraud schemes targeting $340 million in taxpayer funds in its first week on the job — with more than $10 million paid back in restitution.
The NFED’s first big win was the sentencing of Abdullahe Nur Jesow April 9 to three years and seven months in prison for his role in bilking taxpayers out of $250 million meant for a child nutrition program that operated out of a bogus headquarters in Minneapolis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The funds weren’t spent by the co-conspirators — many of whom were part of the Twin Cities Somali community — on feeding needy kids but on luxury cars and real estate holdings abroad.
Jesow was also ordered to pay $866,458 in restitution, while two other convicts — Gandi and Suleman Mohamed — will pay $1.3 million and $8.66 million back to the government as a result of their guilty pleas to the Feeding Our Future scheme.
Federal prosecutors additionally secured a guilty plea from a former San Diego teacher who racked up nearly $51 million in fraudulent billings to Medicare, laundering at least $14 million of that sum and paying another $3.7 million out in kickbacks.
Other sentences in the past week included $933,438 in restitution from a grifter in Oregon who submitted falsified unemployment applications and another scammer in Pennsylvania who misappropriated COVID relief funds.
Federal agents also arrested five fraudsters in Indiana, Kentucky and Colorado for defrauding a COVID relief program out of $1.6 million.
“The National Fraud Enforcement Division is committed to prosecuting anyone who steals from American taxpayers,” said the fraud division’s lead, assistant attorney general Colin McDonald.
“Over the past seven days the Department of Justice has taken enforcement action in fraud schemes totaling over $340 million, with loss or intended loss amounts in individual cases ranging from $54,000 to over $100 million,” he added. “No matter the amount, we are steadfast in our effort to eliminate fraud.”
Vice President JD Vance serves as chair of an interagency fraud task force that first convened last month “to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse within federal benefit programs,” including those at high risk of being bilked such as autism care, at-home rehabilitation and non-emergency medical transports.
“The autism scam that we’ve seen in Somalian parts of Minnesota really illustrates well what’s been going on across whole layers of our government,” Vance noted at the time.
In February, the vice president and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz pulled $259.5 million in Medicaid funding from Minnesota over fraud concerns.
The blue state has been a focus of the Trump administration’s fraud crackdown, with the Justice Department and FBI targeting state programs that failed to safeguard taxpayer dollars.
Vance also accused Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) of having committed immigration fraud by allegedly marrying her brother to help him remain legally in the country. The congresswoman’s chief of staff has called the allegation “a ridiculous lie.”
The DOJ’s division combating fraud was established on April 7.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference announcing the effort that more than $1 trillion of federal funds was potentially vulnerable to fraudsters each year.
“Because of this administration’s leadership, fraudsters, scammers, tax cheats or anyone who lies to get rich off the generosity of the American people should be on notice,” Blanche said.
