A man and his business partner are behind bars in a US jail after they were cornered in a Ksh3.7 billion (USD32 million) scandal involving school children's meals.
Reports by US media outlets on Tuesday, May 24, indicated that the American identified as Abdiaziz Farah was nabbed by officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) on claims of misspending federal meal funds as well as lying on his passport.
Farah, through his companies, is said to have secured up to Ksh3.7 billion under the Federal Child Nutrition Program but allegedly did not spend most of the funds on availing food to school children.
Instead, he is accused of spending the money on lavish belongings including the purchase of cars as well as acquisition of two lakefront lots on Prior Lake in Minnesota for Ksh116 million ($1 million).
In an affidavit filed by the FBI, the suspect is said to have sent Ksh174 million ( USD1.5 million) in federal nutrition money to Kenya and China before spending some additional funds to purchase five cars among them a 2022 Tesla Model Y sedan.
According to the FBI, Farah is named the owner and co-founder of Empire Cuisine & Market and serves on the board of ThinkTechAct Foundation which at some point was said to be providing meals for over 160,000 children.
His woes began in January after FBI raided his home in Minnesota as well as his companies' offices upon catching wind of his deviant activities.
In the raid, his passport was confiscated alongside other documents leaving him exposed.
According to KSTP.com, Farah, who holds a US Citizenship, however, applied for another passport in mid-March on the pretense that he had lost his initial version.
On the same day, he also booked a one-way ticket to Kenya and was scheduled to leave in a weeks time but never boarded the plane.
His arrest succeeded that of his business partner Mohamed Jama Ismail at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport while on his way to Kenya via Amsterdam in April 2022.
The duo is held up at the Sherburne County jail in US.
