Friday July 17, 2026
Federal investigators say Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh played a central role in a $250 million scheme that allegedly raided a federal child nutrition program in Minnesota. (Getty Images; FBI)
Minneapolis (AX) — Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, a defendant in the sprawling Feeding Our Future fraud case, was extradited from Somalia to Minnesota on Thursday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.
Eidleh, 42, of Burnsville, Minnesota, was taken into custody in Somalia on June 26 before FBI agents escorted him back to Minnesota. He is being held at the Sherburne County Jail.
Federal authorities accuse Eidleh of helping lead a $250 million fraud operation involving child nutrition programs designed to provide meals to vulnerable children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials have called the prosecution one of the largest fraud cases in Minnesota’s history.
“Today is a historic moment in the FBI’s war on fraud,” FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital. “The Foreign Transfer of Custody of Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh brings to justice one of the alleged ringleaders of the $250 million ‘Feeding our Future’ fraud scandal out of Minnesota, where the FBI has already helped secure over 70 guilty pleas from fraudsters in partnership with the Justice Department.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency, the Security Agency of Somalia and the Somali Police Force assisted in arranging Eidleh’s extradition.
Investigators have identified Eidleh as one of the case’s most prominent defendants.
Multiple people convicted in the case testified last year that Eidleh brought them into the operation and personally received kickbacks paid to the nonprofit Feeding Our Future in return for getting them enrolled in the federal food assistance program.
According to prosecutors, Eidleh reported directly to Feeding Our Future Executive Director Aimee Bock and established several shell companies that allegedly received $5 million in federal money.
Eidleh had been in Somalia for roughly a year when a 2022 indictment charged him with 31 fraud-related counts. Prosecutors said he stayed outside the United States as a fugitive for several years.
The charges against him include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, federal programs bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering.
Prosecutors allege that Eidleh recruited and supported Federal Child Nutrition Program sites operating under the nonprofit’s sponsorship.
They further contend that he set up sites under nominee owners and submitted false claims that those locations were providing meals to thousands of children every day.
