Charges: Rochester restaurant stole millions from Federal Child Nutrition Program

Multiple people from Rochester face federal criminal charges for their roles in a “brazen scheme of staggering proportions” that defrauded the U.S. government out of $240 million in funding intended for child nutrition.

The four Rochester defendants were among 47 total people named in the indictments, which were unsealed Tuesday by the Department of Justice. They face charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and bribery.

According to prosecutors: The owners of Brava Restaurant & Café, 1217 Marion Road SE, enrolled in the Federal Child Nutrition Program during the Covid-19 pandemic under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future — the organization at the center of the fraud scheme. The owners of Brava and others claimed the restaurant had served millions of meals and also had a contract with Rochester Public Schools. Neither, however, was true.

Based on their claims, the defendants received $4.3 million in federal funds, which they used for their own personal benefit, including purchases of vehicles, real estate, and property on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

The individuals charged in connection to the restaurant scheme are two principals for Brava, Sharmake Jama and Ayan Jama, both of Rochester, and four employees: Mustafa Jama of Rochester, Zamzam Jama of Rochester, Asha Jama of Lakeville, and Fartun Jama of Rosemount.

The charges connected to Brava represent a sliver of what prosecutors described as the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme charged to date.

In all, the scheme involved 125 million faked meal receipts — with defendants enriching themselves with millions of dollars intended as reimbursements for the costs of serving meals to children.

To pull off the operation, the group relied on Aimee Bock, the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that was tasked for distributing funds from the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

Prosecutors say Brock and other employees from Feeding Our Future recruited individuals and entities to open meal sites throughout the state. Those sites claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day, but were often instead shell companies created by the defendants.

The defendants then submitted false invoices to Feeding Our Future using made-up attendance rosters. In one blatant example, a roster was created using names from the website listofrandomnames.com.

The DOJ contends Feeding Our Future knew the invoices were fraudulent, but still went on to submit claims to the Minnesota Department of Education, which administers and oversees Federal Child Nutrition Program funding in the state.

In exchange for sponsoring the fraudulent sites, Feeding Our Future received more than $18 million in administrative fees, along with kickbacks from companies they claimed to be sponsoring, according to prosecutors.

“This was a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger for the District of Minnesota said in a written statement. “These defendants exploited a program designed to provide nutritious food to needy children during the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, they prioritized their own greed, stealing more than a quarter of a billion dollars in federal funds to purchase luxury cars, houses, jewelry, and coastal resort property abroad. I commend the work of the skilled investigators and prosecutors who unraveled the lies, deception, and mountains of false documentation to bring this complex case to light.”

Prosecutors say the defendants were able to carry out the scheme by exploiting pandemic-area changes to food assistance that, among other things, allowed for-profit restaurants to participate in the program.

They also took advantage of the sheer volume of funding available from the government. Feeding Our Future went from dispersing approximately $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021.

The full announcement from the DOJ can be found here.

Cover photo licensed via Canva