Blaine Man Charged in Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme

MINNEAPOLIS (WJON News) -- A Blaine man has been charged for his role in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 37-year-old Mohamed Noor, also known as Deeq Darajo, has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

Court records show Noor was the president and owner of Xogmaal Media Group, a Minneapolis-based non-profit that ran an online news outlet focusing on the Somali community. Officials say in 2020, Noor registered the business as a Federal Child Nutrition Program site with the backing of the Feeding Our Future organization.

According to the documents, Noor claimed that his company was serving as many as 1,500 children a day, seven days a week starting in November 2020. Records show he submitted fake meal counts, signed as the site supervisor, and submitted fake invoices documenting the purchase of food served at the site.

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Based on the fraudulent documents, Xogmaal Media Group was given almost $500,000 in federal funds between June and August 2021, despite arguing they should receive over $1.3 million.

According to the court documents, Noor paid around 80 percent of that money to companies owned by Abdikerm Eidleh. Records show the memo lines on the checks falsely claim the payments were for supplies and loan repayments.

Noor is one of 50 people currently charged in the scheme that took advantage of a federally-funded child nutrition program in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.