meant to provide meals to needy children

The Justice Department today announced charges against 47 people accused of stealing $250 million from a federal program designed to provide meals for needy children during the pandemic.

According to the department, the scheme is the largest Covid-19-related fraud uncovered by investigators to date. The defendants are facing a range of charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and paying and receiving illegal kickbacks.

The defendants, prosecutors said, set up a network of shell companies connected to the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding our Future, to exploit the federal child nutrition program, which is designed to provide meals to children from low-income families.

The program was expanded by Congress at the start of the pandemic to allow more organizations to participate.
"Feeding Our Future employees recruited individuals and entities to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites throughout the state of Minnesota," the Justice Department said in a release.

"These sites, created and operated by the defendants and others, fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed."According to prosecutors, the defendants used the proceeds of the scheme to buy real estate in Minnesota, Kenya and Turkey, luxury cars, jewelry, to fund international travel, and more.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Luger (US Attorney Andrew M. Luger for the District of Minnesota) said an unspecified number of people were arrested in the morning, but some defendants are not presently in the US