St. Cloud Business Owner Sentenced to Prison for Wire Fraud

ST. CLOUD -- A St. Cloud business owner has been sentenced to prison for committing wire fraud.

Sixty-year-old Hared Nur Jibril, of St. Cloud, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised released and must pay over $4.1-million in restitution.

Jibril pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud back in December.

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According to court documents, Jibril owned and operated Hormud Meat and Grocery Market in St. Cloud from 2009 to 2021. In 2009, Jibril applied for and was granted certification for his business to participate in SNAP and was also authorized as a WIC vendor. Both programs require recertification.

Records show between 2018 and 2021, Jibril and other employees came up with a scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Agriculture by exchanging SNAP and WIC benefits for cash, phone minutes, personal care products and food from Jibril's adjoining restaurant.

The scheme resulted in a loss of more than $4.1-million to the SNAP and WIC programs.

Court records show during the spring and summer of 2020, Jibril also applied for unemployment benefits, claiming he had been laid off from work due to the pandemic, despite his continued self-employment.

He received more than $32,000 in unemployment assistance.