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Authorities in Minnesota have filed criminal charges against a man accused of a food stamp fraud scheme that defrauded taxpayers out of over $1 million.
Abdidwahid Mohamed, the owner of Minnesota Food Grocery LLC, allegedly used EBT cards registered to others to purchase items at Sam’s Club and Costco in 2021 before turning around and reselling them in his store, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.
Authorities in Hennepin County say they observed Mohamed making purchases and followed him back to his store with the goods. Surveillance footage and GPS data backed this up, while investigators noted that many of the EBT cardholders were either out of the country or say they never shopped at the stores he used.
SNAP, the federal program allegedly abused by Mohamed, provides food assistance to low-income households through EBT cards that function like debit cards.
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"Mohamed received $1,141,082 in EBT payments," according to the complaint, which added that the plan "involved a high degree of sophistication or planning or occurred over a lengthy period of time."
Mohamed faces up to 20 years in prison or a $100,000 fine if found guilty.
"Minneapolis didn't become America's fraud capital by accident," Dalia al-Aqidi, a Republican running for Congress in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District against Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told Fox News Digital. "It was earned. This week, it's a grocer charged with running up $1.1 million in charges on other people's EBT cards. Next week, it will be something else, but the bill always lands on the Minnesotans who actually pay taxes."
Aqidi says that families tell her "affordability" is what "keeps them up night" and the "cruel joke is that the money is here to really make a difference for people."
"It is just lining the wrong pockets and paying for luxury cars and houses on the other side of the world. The fraudsters are only half the story. The other half are the people administering these programs, from the front lines all the way up to Ilhan Omar, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Governor Tim Walz. There has been talk about ending fraud in Minnesota for years. I am going to Washington to actually do it."
Two Republican lawmakers in Minnesota who spoke to Fox News Digital echoed a similar sentiment, including state Sen. Mark Koran, a Republican, who said the situation is "yet another example of why Minnesota is target number one for fraudsters."
"The sheer volume of welfare programs, combined with the inability of state agencies to detect obvious fraud is alarming. Once again, it was a private retailer, not the state, that uncovered this fraud scheme," Koran added, referencing the suspect being initially flagged by Walmart’s Global Investigation Team.
"All individuals involved, including the people that sold their EBT cards to Abdi Mohamed, have to be fully prosecuted," Koran said. People who come here to steal from hardworking Minnesota taxpayers deserve serious consequences.
Minnesota state Sen. Michael Holmstrom, a Republican, reacted to the news by telling Fox News Digital, "This may be the laziest one yet."
"We had this guy, Abdi Mohamed, and he named his scam company 'Minnesota Food Grocery LLC.' They aren’t even trying, because they have been conditioned to believe there are no consequences."
Fox News Digital reached out to Walz's office for comment.
The charges come amid the massive fraud scandal unfolding in Minnesota within social services programs, particularly within the Somali community, in recent months, along with a renewed crackdown from the Trump administration on food stamp fraud.
"Since its inception, SNAP has helped our most vulnerable citizens afford the essential and nutritious food they need," Rollins and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in a Fox News op-ed in March. "At least, that is what the program is supposed to do.
"Over time, however, SNAP has been taken advantage of, allowing many to game the system and leaving millions of vulnerable Americans without healthy, nutrient-dense food options."
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