On Wednesday, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, now aged 36, received a sentence of 28 years in federal prison from U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel.
He was convicted on 23 felony counts at the first Feeding Our Future courtroom trial, which concluded more than a year ago.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is out with a detailed press release about the sentencing.
Farah becomes just the fifth defendant sentenced, out of 51 convicted so far, in the sprawling Feeding Our Future scandal. He is considered to be the ringleader of the Empire Cuisine group of defendants and the ringleader of the related juror bribery case.
Farah has pled guilty in his role in the attempt to bribe a juror in the first trial and will be sentenced separately.
Farah’s lawyer pointed out in pre-sentencing documents that notorious crypto-fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried received only 25 years for his multi-billion-dollar scheme. Prosecutors noted that Bankman-Fried didn’t steal money meant to feed poor hungry children.
Farah is on the hook for the full $48 million stolen by his cohorts. He is believed to have received, personally, $8.1 million of that amount.
About that, the U.S. Attorney, Joe Thompson, points out,
Farah further sent the taxpayer money he stole overseas, purchasing real estate in Kenya and a high-rise apartment building in Nairobi. Farah laundered the fraud proceeds through China. This overseas money is beyond the reach of American law enforcement—neither these funds nor Farah’s international real estate holdings have been, or can be, seized or forfeited.
And the ingratitude, as Thompson points out,
This country gave Farah everything. A home. Citizenship. A free college education. After that he went on to public employment with the state of Minnesota. And how did he repay this country and this state? By robbing us blind. He has gotten every opportunity, and this is how he used it. Farah didn’t want the American dream. He wanted to be rich. He wanted to be wealthy. He thought he was entitled to it. He won the lottery of life, he was given everything by this country, and he repaid us with a life of crime.
No date has been set yet for Farah’s sentencing in the juror bribery case. Farah’s brother, Said Shafii Farah, is scheduled to plead guilty to his role in the bribery case on August 21.
Farah’s co-conspirator in the fraud case, Hayat Nur, is scheduled to be sentenced on August 26.