Abdiaziz Farah sentenced to 28 years in Feeding Our Future case

A man who was convicted on 23 charges in the sprawling Feeding Our Future fraud investigation was sentenced on Wednesday to 28 years in prison.

Abdiaziz Farah’s sentence, handed down by U.S. Judge Nancy Brasel, is the longest punishment so far in the case.

Farah — one of the main defendants in the first jury trial related to the meal fraud scheme — was found guilty on charges of wire fraud, money laundering and federal programs bribery totaling more than $40 million.

Among more than 70 defendants, prosecutors put Farah at the top of a $300 million fraud pyramid with the likes of Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and Salim Said. Bock and Said, who were convicted in March, are still awaiting sentencing.

RELATED: Feeding Our Future co-defendants Bock, Said found guilty on all counts in meal fraud trial

Now Farah is headed to federal prison for his role in stealing taxpayer money meant to help feed underserved kids during the pandemic.

“I cannot find any reason for the behavior other than pure, unmitigated greed,” Judge Brasel said in court.

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Lead prosecutor Joe Thompson was asking for 30 years, calling it the kind of “nightmare” in Minnesota where he recently told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that fraud in government programs could exceed $1 billion.

“[Farah] not only took tens of millions of dollars but laundered much of it abroad and sent much of it to Kenya, among other things,” Thompson said.

We asked if this sentencing gets the U.S. Attorney’s Office any closer to recovering more of what was stolen from taxpayers.

“Well, it speeds it up. Now that he’s been sentenced, we can actually execute on that forfeiture and sell that property off and return it to the taxpayers,” Thompson said.

With his family in the gallery at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis, Farah said, “I want to apologize to the state and the country that has given me so much.”

But that apology focused largely on his admitted attempt to bribe a juror at the end of his trial last year.

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“The sense I got was he’s sorry he got caught,” Thompson said.

Farah and four codefendants were charged with bribing a juror with $120,000 in cash during that trial. All have since pleaded guilty to their roles in the plot to convince Juror 52 to acquit the defendants.

As part of his plea agreement, Farah faces additional prison time on top of the 28 years he received on Wednesday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office estimates it has been able to get back $60-70 million so far, but prosecutors point out that the money Farah sent overseas will likely never be recovered.

Read KSTP’s full Feeding Our Future coverage here.