A Minneapolis Grocer.
$1.14 Million in EBT.
And a Walz-Era Pattern That Won’t Stop Repeating.
On May 4, 2026, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed felony charges against Abdidwahid Mohamed, the owner of Minnesota Food Grocery LLC on West Lake Street in Minneapolis. The complaint alleges Mohamed used Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) EBT cards registered to other people to buy goods at Sam’s Club and Costco, hauled them back to his own store, put them on his shelves, and resold them — collecting $1,141,082 in fraudulent EBT payments between March 8 and August 10, 2021.
Investigators say they followed Mohamed’s vehicles between the wholesale clubs and the storefront on surveillance and GPS, then interviewed the EBT cardholders whose accounts had been drained. Several said they had been out of the country during the swipes. One said she had agreed to let Mohamed use her card and then went a year and a half without paying for groceries. Mohamed’s first court appearance is set for May 27, 2026; a Minnesota theft-by-swindle conviction carries up to 20 years in prison.
The case is, by Minnesota standards in 2026, small. It is also the latest entry in a six-year ledger of food-and-welfare fraud that ballooned during former Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN)’s tenure, the same ledger that produced the $250 million Feeding Our Futurescheme — called by FBI Director Kash Patel “the largest pandemic-era fraud in the United States” — and that federal prosecutors now estimate has cost taxpayers as much as $9 billion across Minnesota’s social-services programs.
- $1,141,082alleged EBT theftHennepin County District Court complaint, Minnesota Food Grocery LLC, March 8 – August 10, 2021. Defendant Abdidwahid Mohamed; first court appearance May 27, 2026 (KSTP / Fox News Politics).
- 20 retailersOperation Cold SNAP — April 16, 2026USDA Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations executed search warrants at 20 SNAP-authorized Twin Cities retailers and issued administrative charging letters for trafficking and program violations (USDA OIG).
- $250MFeeding Our Future — gold-standard referenceMinnesota-based USDA-funded Federal Child Nutrition Program defrauded over the COVID-19 pandemic on Gov. Walz's watch. 79 defendants indicted; 63+ convicted by March 2026 (DOJ / U.S. Attorney for Minnesota).
- 92 charged / 62 convictedacross-MN scheme totals (March 2026)Federal prosecutors' running tally across Feeding Our Future, Housing Stabilization, autism services, ICS, PCA, and substance-use providers — total fraud estimated up to $9 billion (CBS News).
- $129MUSDA payments suspended to MNUSDA Secretary Brooke Rollins paused $129 million in active and future USDA awards to Minnesota in January 2026 pending fraud-control reforms; Minnesota AG Keith Ellison sued (CBS Minnesota / RedState).
The defendant: Abdidwahid Mohamed, owner of Minnesota Food Grocery LLC, a small SNAP-authorized retailer near West Lake Street in Minneapolis.
The conduct window: March 8, 2021 through August 10, 2021 — a five-month run during which, prosecutors allege, Mohamed personally swiped EBT cards belonging to other recipients and pocketed the value.
The mechanics: According to the complaint, Mohamed used cards registered to other people to make wholesale purchases at Sam’s Club and Costco. Investigators followed his vehicles from the warehouse-club parking lots back to Minnesota Food Grocery, where the goods were unloaded and put on the store’s shelves for resale. Several of the cardholders whose accounts were swiped told investigators they had been out of the country during the transactions. One cardholder said she had given Mohamed permission to use her card and then went more than a year and a half without paying for any groceries herself.
The dollar figure:$1,141,082 in EBT payments collected by Mohamed’s store during the conduct window — the figure the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has put in front of the court.
The exposure: Felony theft by swindle in Minnesota carries up to 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. First appearance is scheduled for May 27, 2026.
Status: Mohamed has not been convicted. The complaint contains allegations that must be proved at trial. He is presumed innocent.
“Minneapolis didn't become America's fraud capital by accident. It was earned. This week, it's a grocer charged with running up $1.1 million in charges on other people's EBT cards. Next week, it will be something else, but the bill always lands on the Minnesotans who actually pay taxes.”
Dalia al-Aqidi (R), candidate for Minnesota's 5th Congressional District · to Fox News Digital, May 12, 2026
A million-dollar SNAP scam at a single corner store on Lake Street is, on its own, a routine USDA OIG case. What makes the Mohamed indictment a national story is that it is happening in the same city, against the same federal nutrition system, that produced the largest pandemic-era fraud in U.S. history — and that the state government supposed to catch it has now spent six years failing to.
Feeding Our Future — $250 million.Minnesota-based nonprofit defrauded the USDA-funded Federal Child Nutrition Program over the COVID-19 pandemic by submitting fake meal counts. Founder Aimee Bock convicted by federal jury (Minneapolis), March 2025. 79 defendants indicted; 63+ convicted by plea or verdict as of March 2026. FBI Director Kash Patel: “the largest pandemic-era fraud in the United States.”
Housing Stabilization Services — $100M+ annual run-rate.Program shut down August 2025 after “large-scale fraud” discovered. Spending ballooned from a $2.6M initial estimate. 8 charged September 2025; 5 more in December.
Integrated Community Supports (ICS). Annual outlays grew from $4.6 million in 2021 to roughly $180 million by 2025. At least 17 providers suspended in 2025 over fraud allegations.
Personal Care Assistance — MN Professional, $9.5M. Bridges MN: $4M. Promise Health Services: $7.2M. Nuway Alliance substance-use services: $18.5M civil settlement (June 2025). Evergreen substance-use provider: a single employee billed for 203 hours in one day.
Across-MN totals:92 people charged, 62 convicted as of March 2026, per CBS News tracking. Federal prosecutors place the aggregate fraud across 14 “high-risk” Minnesota Medicaid and social-services programs at up to $9 billion since 2018 — with the U.S. Attorney’s office stating that fraudulent payouts may constitute “half or more” of funding in some of those programs.
Walz’s response: Disputed the $9 billion figure. Announced he would not seek a third term as Minnesota governor on January 5, 2026.
Gov. Tim Walz (D)— Minnesota Governor since January 2019; 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee. Announced on January 5, 2026 that he would not run for a third term.
Attorney General Keith Ellison (D)— Minnesota Attorney General since 2019; previously U.S. Representative for Minnesota’s 5th District (2007–2019); former Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
House Oversight findings (March 2026 hearing). The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), concluded that Gov. Walz and AG Ellison “were aware of credible fraud concerns” at the Minnesota Department of Human Services as early as 2019 and at the Minnesota Department of Education by April 2020, and that the administration retaliated against state-employee whistleblowers who flagged the fraud. The committee also concluded that the Minnesota Department of Education voluntarily continued payments to Feeding Our Future despite identifying serious program deficiencies, and that — contrary to the Walz administration’s public claims — the FBI never instructed Minnesota to keep the money flowing during the federal investigation.
The accountability gap.No senior Walz-administration official has been charged in connection with the underlying program failures. The defendants in court are the contractors and operators — the people on the receiving end of the wire transfers — not the agency commissioners who signed off on the wires.
Mohamed’s alleged scheme is not an outlier within Minnesota retail SNAP. On April 16, 2026 — less than three weeks before the Hennepin County complaint — the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations executed criminal search warrants at 20 SNAP-authorized retail locations across the Twin Cities and issued administrative charging letters for trafficking and program violations. The operation was named “Cold SNAP.”
What happened: 20 simultaneous Twin Cities retail-location search warrants, executed jointly by USDA OIG special agents and HSI. Administrative charging letters issued the same day to 20 SNAP-authorized retailers for trafficking and other program violations.
Who said what: “Today’s successful takedowns of SNAP traffickers demonstrates the effectiveness of fraud prevention when federal partners work together,” USDA Inspector General John Walksaid in the official release. Walk noted that retailer SNAP trafficking “steal[s] from victims that include children who rely on federal nutrition assistance.”
The federal squeeze on Minnesota: In January 2026, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollinssuspended approximately $129 million in active and future USDA awards to Minnesota pending fraud-control reforms, including a demand that the state recertify all SNAP recipients in Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, and Wright counties within 30 days. Minnesota AG Ellison filed suit in U.S. District Court (before Judge Laura Provinzino) seeking a temporary restraining order. Rollins’s line in the public statement: “Time to drain the MN swamp.”
National scale, per Rollins (March 2026): 500,000 people receiving more than one SNAP benefit illegally. 244,000 dead recipients still on the rolls. 895 SNAP-fraud arrests in the prior year. 4.2 million fewer SNAP recipients overall during the first year of the second Trump administration.
The headline that traveled was Dalia al-Aqidi’s — a Republican challenger to Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, the same district Lake Street runs through. Her line for Fox News Digital was the one that did the work:
“The cruel joke is that the money is here to really make a difference for people. It is just lining the wrong pockets and paying for luxury cars and houses on the other side of the world.”
Dalia al-Aqidi (R-MN-05) · to Fox News Digital, May 12, 2026
Strip the partisan framing and the underlying observation is what the federal record already shows: the SNAP, Medicaid, child-nutrition, and housing dollars Congress appropriated to feed and shelter low-income Minnesotans have, in case after case, been billed by store owners, contractors, and providers for groceries that did not move, meals that were never served, hours that were never worked, and apartments that were never lived in. The money exists. It is a transfer payment, not a missing program. The transfers, in Minnesota, have repeatedly landed somewhere other than where they were sent.
The Mohamed indictment is one storefront on one street. The pattern around it — six years of Walz-era nutrition and welfare fraud, $250 million siphoned from a child-feeding program in the middle of a pandemic, 92 named defendants and counting, $129 million in federal payments now suspended pending reforms, and a House Oversight finding that the governor and the attorney general knew about it as early as 2019 and silenced the people who tried to flag it — is the actual story. The grocer is just the latest line on the page.
A Minneapolis grocer is charged with stealing $1.14 million in SNAP benefits one EBT swipe at a time. He is the latest defendant, not the first. Feeding Our Future was $250 million. The across-Minnesota total is up to $9 billion. Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and AG Keith Ellison (D-MN) were warned about the fraud as early as 2019. The bill, as the candidate said, lands on the Minnesotans who actually pay taxes.
Enough is enough! The Trump administration has uncovered MASSIVE fraud in Minnesota and Minneapolis — billions siphoned off by fraudsters. And those in charge have ZERO plan to fix it. Today, @USDA is SUSPENDING FEDERAL FINANCIAL AWARDS to Minnesota and Minneapolis, effective immediately, until sufficient proof has been provided that the fraud has stopped. No more handouts to thieves! Time to drain the Minnesota swamp and put American taxpayers first.
“I don’t have to tell you jack shit,” said @Ilhan. That’s not blunt honesty; it’s contempt for the public. Anyone entrusted with power owes transparency and respect. This is neither. @mngop @MNCD5GOP @MPLSGOP
President Trump on Truth Social on the Minnesota fraud scandal under Gov. Walz.
President Trump on Truth Social, December 31, 2025 — on the Minnesota fraud pattern and Rep. Omar.