A 65-year-old man who claimed to serve meals to hungry children but instead pocketed federal funds to buy a house in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, was sentenced to 43 months in prison on Thursday.
Abdullahe Nur Jesow pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering in October. The judge also ordered him to pay more than $860,000 in restitution.
Court documents say that between December 2020 and September 2021, Jesow purported to operate a Federal Child Nutrition Program meal distribution site, operated by a nonprofit called Academy for Youth Excellence, on Lake Street in Minneapolis.
During those months, the nonprofit claimed to have served over 1.7 million meals to children. Academy for Youth Excellence and its alleged food vendor, S&S Catering, received more than $4.2 million in federal funds. Jesow used the funds for his own benefit by buying a home in Columbia Heights, the U.S….
This type of fraud targets the supply chain and accounts payable departments of businesses.
- Invoice Manipulation: Criminals intercept a legitimate invoice between a supplier and a client and change the banking details to their own. The client pays the bill thinking they are paying their trusted vendor.
- Kickbacks and Bribery: A vendor secretly pays an employee of the purchasing company to ensure their bid is successful or to overlook inflated pricing.