Ousman Camara, 45, has been indicted on charges of wire fraud, federal programs bribery, and money laundering for his alleged role in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen. Camara is the 77th person to be charged in what authorities describe as the largest Covid-19-related fraud case in the United States.
Camara owned K’s Dollar Grocery and Deli, a small grocery store located in north Minneapolis. In August 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture disqualified both Camara and his store from participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) due to suspected fraudulent activity.
According to prosecutors, Camara enrolled K’s Grocery in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under Feeding Our Future's sponsorship in September 2020. He then claimed that he was serving meals to 1,000 children daily throughout 2020 and 2021. Authorities allege these claims were false and that no such meal service took place.
Prosecutors state that Camara reported serving over 300,000 meals to children and sought more than $1 million in reimbursement funds from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Instead of using these funds for their intended purpose, investigators say Camara used them for personal expenses including paying credit card bills and purchasing a building in north Minneapolis. It is also alleged that he transferred more than $100,000 overseas and paid approximately $87,000 as kickbacks to a Feeding Our Future employee who facilitated his fraudulent claims.
The investigation involved multiple agencies: the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Postal Inspection Service, and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph H Thompson, Harry M. Jacobs, and Daniel W. Bobier are handling prosecution duties for this case.
"An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law," according to the release.
