![\"MN](\"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/dw2qizlwjqew9txf.jpg\")
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – A Minnesota man has been ordered to pay millions after a jury found he defrauded a federal food program meant to help hungry children during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Medicaid in Minnesota: Fraudsters owe millions but pay back little<\/p>\n
State secures major civil penalty in food program fraud <\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
A jury found that Emaldeldin Ibrahim submitted more than 90,000 false claims totaling $188,351 in bogus reimbursements over three months in 2021.<\/p>\n
The money was intended for meals and snacks for hungry children.<\/p>\n
The Minnesota Attorney General\u2019s Office pursued the case in civil court under the state\u2019s False Claims Act, which allows for penalties beyond the amount stolen.<\/p>\n
This week, a Hennepin County court judge approved nearly $2.5 million in damages, civil penalties, attorney fees and court costs\u2014almost 13 times the amount of the original theft.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Minnesota fraud: Man liable for $188K in false food program claims<\/p>\n
Attorney General Keith Ellison called the judgment a “wakeup call” for those thinking about defrauding Minnesota.<\/p>\n
“Not only will you face criminal consequences, but the Minnesota Attorney General\u2019s Office will pursue you under civil law to recover Minnesota taxpayers\u2019 hard-earned dollars,” Ellison said in a statement to the FOX 9 Investigators.<\/p>\n
Same food program fraud as Feeding our Future <\/p>\n
Dig deeper:<\/p>\n
The fraud took place during the pandemic and is connected to the same federal food programs targeted in the larger Feeding Our Future scheme.<\/p>\n
The Attorney General\u2019s office pursued the case after it was tipped off to potential fraud by Ibrahim from the Sudanese Community Association and Wells Fargo.<\/p>\n
“Emadeldin Ibrahim stole our tax dollars while pretending to feed hungry children during a pandemic,” Ellison said in the statement, calling Ibrahim\u2019s actions disgraceful. “Thanks to this $2.5 million judgment, Mr. Ibrahim will be paying back the people of Minnesota for quite some time.”<\/p>\n
Big financial penalties, little recovery <\/p>\n
The backstory:<\/p>\n
The FOX 9 Investigators have tracked similar cases and found that the state often struggles to recover restitution from those convicted.<\/p>\n
Analysis of dozens of convictions by the Attorney General\u2019s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit since 2020 revealed that defendants owed more than $13 million in restitution, but the state had collected less than 18% of that amount.<\/p>\n
In some situations, defendants were released from probation without making significant payments.<\/p>\n
Ellison has previously told the FOX 9 Investigators the state\u2019s fraud recovery laws need to be strengthened.<\/p>\n
“For the person who just doesn’t care and is trying to get away with wrongdoing, I think we need stronger medicine for people like that,” stated Ellison.<\/p>\n
The Source: This story uses information gathered by FOX 9 investigative reporter Paul Blume and previous FOX 9 reporting.<\/p>\n
Fraud in MinnesotaFeeding Our Future <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – A Minnesota man has been ordered to pay millions after a jury found he defrauded a federal food program meant to help hungry children during the pandemic. READ MORE: Medicaid in Minnesota: Fraudsters owe millions but pay back little State secures major civil penalty in food program fraud What<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4099,17719,4075,4073,4071,17718,4074,4072,192,1261],"class_list":["post-18322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-feeding-our-future","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-dining","tag-minnesota-food","tag-minnesota-fraud","tag-minnesota-grocery-stores","tag-minnesota-restaurant","tag-news","tag-organization"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117292967177880137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}