Federal officials successfully extradited Feeding Our Future defendant Abdikerm Eidleh from Somalia today, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Minnesota.
FBI agents escorted Eidleh, 42, to Minnesota Thursday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Eidleh is now in custody in the Sherburne County Jail.
Law enforcement in Somalia arrested Eidleh in Mogadishu on June 26.
The U.S Attorney’s Office credited Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency, the Security Agency of Somalia, and the Somali Police Force for helping with his extradition.
Eidleh was allegedly the second-biggest player in the Feeding Our Future fraud case. Several people who were convicted in the case testified last year that Eidleh directly recruited them into the scheme. They also said he personally collected the kickbacks they paid to the nonprofit, Feeding Our Future, for enrolling them in the federal food aid program that gave them money to feed children.
Organizations reported feeding far more children than they actually did, or never fed children but lied that they did, in order to receive more than $250 million in federal funding combined.
Eidleh, who worked directly under Feeding Our Future Executive Director Aimee Bock, allegedly created several shell companies and funneled $5 million in federal money through them.
Eidleh had already been in Somalia for a year when he was indicted in the fall of 2022 with 31 fraud-related violations. He stayed abroad, living life as a fugitive for the next four years.
Eidleh’s extradition came despite the fact that the U.S. and Somalia lack an extradition treaty. But both countries’ governments are longtime strategic allies, despite President Trump administration’s rhetoric demeaning Somalis.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office also credited the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs with “providing valuable assistance in securing Eidleh’s return to the United States.”
