Date: June 12, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
MINNEAPOLIS — A Golden Valley man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud for his role in the $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.
According to court documents, in October 2020, shortly after the Minnesota Department of Education announced that it was no longer approving food sites run by restaurants and other for-profit companies, defendant Ahmed Mohamed Artan, acquired a non-profit entity, Stigma-Free International, for use in carrying out the scheme. Artan and his co-conspirators used Stigma-Free International to open a number of new Federal Child Nutrition Program sites around the state of Minnesota, including in Willmar, Mankato, St. Cloud, Waite Park, and St. Paul. At the same time, Artan’s conspirators created additional shell companies to serve as meal vendor companies purporting to provide the meals to be served to children at these Stigma-Free International sites. Together, the defendants claimed to be serving meals to tens of thousands of children each day throughout the state of Minnesota, for which they fraudulently claimed and received millions of dollars in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
Over the 12-month period from November 2020 to November 2021, Artan and his co-conspirators fraudulently claimed to have served nearly 5 million meals to children at the Stigma-Free International sites. In support of these claims, they prepared and submitted fraudulent meal count sheets and invoices. The conspirators also submitted fraudulent attendance rosters listing the names of fake children who purportedly received food at the Stigma-Free International sites.
To accomplish his scheme, Artan and his co-conspirators also created a company called Olive Management Inc. that purported to operate a federal child nutrition program site in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The Olive Management site fraudulently claimed to have served meals to 3,000 children a day, seven days a week, at a small storefront deli located in a strip mall in St. Cloud. During the 12-month period from September 2020 to September 2021, the Artan and his co-conspirators fraudulently claimed to have served more than 1.6 million meals to children at the Olive Management site. In support of these claims, the defendants prepared and submitted fraudulent meal count sheets and invoices. In support of their fraudulent claims, the defendants also submitted a fake attendance roster purporting to list the names of 2,040 children who attended the Olive Management site’s “after-school program.” The roster was fraudulent and the names on it were fake.
Artan and co-conspirators also created another company called Optimum Community Services for use in carrying out the fraud scheme. Optimum Community Services purported to have food distribution sites in Golden Valley and Waite Park, at which they claimed—fraudulently—to have served nearly 700,000 meals to children between March and December 2021.
According to court documents, rather than use fraudulently obtained money to serve meals or feed children, Artan and his co-conspirators fraudulently misappropriated much of it. He and his co-conspirators created a shell company called Five A’s Projects LLC, where they transferred more than $1 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds. They used these proceeds to purchase the former location of Kelly’s 19th Hole, a bar and restaurant in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, which will be now forfeited to the United States.
In total, Artan caused a loss of approximately $1,682,664 in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds based on fraudulent reimbursement claims.
Artan pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court before Judge Eric C. Tostrud. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.
The case is the result of an investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew S. Ebert, Harry M. Jacobs, and Daniel W. Bobier are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Baune is handling the seizure and forfeiture of assets.
IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.