Empire Cuisine co-owner sentenced to 28 years for claiming 18 million meals at sites that were parking lots
Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 36, co-owner of Empire Cuisine & Market, was sentenced on August 6, 2025 to 28 years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $47,920,514. A jury convicted him in June 2024 after a seven-week trial. He enrolled Empire Cuisine in the Federal Child Nutrition Program in April 2020, opened a number of fraudulent sites, and with co-defendants stole more than $47 million in program funds by claiming to serve 18 million meals at more than 30 sites. Many sites served no meals and were parking lots or vacant commercial spaces. He personally took more than $8 million in 18 months.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $47.9 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Child nutrition program fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-27
The facts, as recorded
- Farah enrolled Empire Cuisine & Market in the Federal Child Nutrition Program in April 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, then immediately opened a number of fraudulent program sites and began falsely claiming to serve meals to thousands of children a day.
- He and his co-defendants stole more than $47 million in program funds by claiming to serve 18 million meals to children at more than 30 food distribution sites.
- Many of the purported sites served no meals at all and were nothing more than parking lots or vacant commercial spaces.
- The defendants papered up the scheme by creating fraudulent meal counts and invoices and using phony rosters with fake children's names. Few of the names matched real students in the local school districts, and some were obviously fake, such as Serious Problem and Britishy Melony.
- To keep the fraud going Farah ran a pay-to-play system, paying thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to personnel at Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition.
- Farah personally took more than $8 million in his 18 months of involvement, buying five luxury vehicles in about six months, about $4.2 million of real estate in the Twin Cities and Kentucky, and real estate in Kenya, according to the IRS Criminal Investigation release.
- After federal agents seized his passport in January 2022 he applied for a new one on March 22, 2022, falsely claiming it was lost, and bought a one-way ticket to Kenya less than two weeks later before he was charged with passport fraud and arrested.
- In June 2024 a jury convicted Farah of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, false statements in a passport application, conspiracy to commit money laundering, two counts of federal programs bribery, six counts of wire fraud and 11 counts of money laundering.
- During the trial Farah and four others attempted to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash for a not guilty verdict, and the 28-year sentence did not reflect that. KSTP later reported that he was sentenced to a further 10 years for juror bribery.
Why this case matters
It is the clearest account of what a fake site looked like. According to the IRS Criminal Investigation release, many of the sites that claimed to feed thousands of children a day were parking lots or vacant commercial spaces. The paper that supported the claims, meal counts, invoices and rosters of children, was invented, and the release gives examples of names on the rosters that were plainly fake.
Where the money went
The release lists what one defendant did with his share: more than $8 million in 18 months, five luxury vehicles in about six months, about $4.2 million of real estate in the United States and real estate in Kenya. It also says some of the money went overseas where it is beyond the reach of American law enforcement, which is the release’s statement rather than a finding this page can check.
The caveat
Farah was convicted at trial and has been sentenced, so the conduct above is what the jury found and what prosecutors presented, taken from the IRS Criminal Investigation release and reported by FOX 9 and KSTP. The release gives the scheme overall as $300 million, while other reports and the Bock case give about $242 million to $250 million, and this page gives the figures the release attributes to Farah’s own part. It mentions the juror bribery attempt because it is part of the record of the case, and it does not describe any of the other defendants.
Sources
- In landmark sentence, Feeding Our Future scheme leader sentenced to 28 years in prison. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Accessed 2026-10-27. Supports: Every fact above except the later juror sentence: the April 2020 enrollment, the more than 30 sites and 18 million meals, the parking lots and vacant spaces, the fake rosters and names, the bribes, the $8 million and the purchases, the passport fraud, the June 2024 convictions, the 28-year sentence and restitution, and the juror bribery attempt.
- Feeding Our Future: Abdiaziz Shafii Farah sentenced to 28 years. FOX 9. Accessed 2026-10-27. Supports: The same account of the 28-year sentence, the more than $47 million, the 18 million meals at more than 30 sites, the fake names on rosters and the passport fraud.
- Feeding Our Future defendant will serve a combined 38 years in prison for role in fraud case, juror bribery. KSTP. Accessed 2026-10-27. Supports: The additional 10-year sentence for juror bribery, the June 2025 guilty plea in that case, and that jurors convicted Farah on 23 of 24 counts.