The Feeding Our Future scandal let fraudsters steal $250 million meant to feed hungry children during COVID.
Tim Walz ran Minnesota while every dollar vanished – and nobody came for the thieves until Trump took over.
Now Kash Patel just showed what one list can do to a man who thought he was untouchable.
The List That Made a Fugitive Run to the Airport
The FBI launched its brand-new "Most Wanted Fraudsters" list on June 4, 2026.
Said Abdullahi Ereg – a Minneapolis grocery owner wanted on federal charges since 2024 – called his attorney the very next day.
He surrendered at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on June 10.
One list. Six days. First catch.
https://twitter.com/RealAmVoice/status/2065054964376825966?s=20
Ereg ran Evergreen Grocery and Deli in south Minneapolis under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future.
Federal prosecutors allege his tiny deli claimed to be serving more than 3,000 meals twice a day, seven days a week – 1.4 million meals total.
The deli didn't come close to feeding that many people.
What Ereg allegedly did with the $4.2 million he collected was move most of it into foreign accounts and use the rest to bankroll a lifestyle your tax dollars were never meant to fund.
His wife, Najmo Ahmed, already pleaded guilty to money laundering last year.
She's scheduled for sentencing this month.
The Bigger Picture Behind One Arrest
Ereg is not alone.
Feeding Our Future spawned the largest COVID fraud prosecution in the country – 77 defendants charged, more than 56 guilty pleas, and a ring that prosecutors say stole nearly $250 million from programs designed to feed low-income children.
https://twitter.com/RepPatFallon/status/2065090355180019909?s=20
The scheme worked because government officials let it work.
Organizers submitted fake attendance rosters listing thousands of fictional children.
One site claimed 2,000 to 3,000 meals per day from a restaurant that previously served a few dozen customers and pulled in $500 a day.
Minnesota's own auditors later concluded the state Department of Education handed fraudsters a roadmap – ignoring early complaints and backing down the moment investigators were accused of racial bias.
The fraudsters knew exactly which shield to hold up.
Tim Walz was governor through all of it.
The scandal loomed so large over his tenure that he announced in January he wouldn't seek a third term.
He never faced a list.
He never faced a Kash Patel.
Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock was convicted and sentenced to more than 40 years in prison earlier this year.
She was one piece of a machine that ran for nearly two years before anyone shut it down.
This Is What a Real Fraud Crackdown Looks Like
The "Most Wanted Fraudsters" list was JD Vance's idea.
Patel described it this way: Vance looked at the FBI's existing top ten lists for gang members, terrorists, and drug traffickers and asked why there wasn't one for the people stealing billions from American families.
Patel delivered.
"The days of Washington, D.C., turning a blind eye to fraud are over," Patel said after Ereg's surrender.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2064783338645176575?s=20
That's not a press release talking point.
That's a man who got a fugitive to turn himself in inside of a week.
The Trump administration's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud – led by Vance – has already flagged $6.3 billion in government contracts going to potentially fraudulent businesses.
A National Fraud Enforcement Division now backs the task force with prosecutorial muscle.
Washington ignored this kind of theft for years because the victims were invisible – numbers in a federal database, children who never received the meals taxpayers paid for.
Said Ereg's surrender proves the approach works.
When fraudsters see their faces on a federal list and know the FBI is using public pressure the same way it hunts terrorists and cartel leaders, they make the call.
The rest of the names on that list are watching.
Sources:
- Michael Sinkewicz, "Minnesota man marks FBI's first arrest from DOJ's 'Most Wanted Fraudsters' list," Fox News, June 10, 2026.
- "Dozens Charged in $250 Million COVID Fraud Scheme," Federal Bureau of Investigation, September 22, 2022.
- "77th Defendant Charged in Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme," U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Minnesota, Department of Justice.
- "First 'Most Wanted Fraudster' Surrenders To FBI: Here's What He's Accused Of," Daily Voice, June 10, 2026.
- "FBI debuts 'Most Wanted Fraudsters' list as DOJ charges Ohio defendants in alleged $30M Medicaid scheme targeting children," American Tribune, June 7, 2026.
