Authorities in Minnesota have filed criminal charges against Abdidwahid Mohamed, the owner of Minnesota Food Grocery LLC, over an alleged food stamp fraud scheme that drained more than $1.1 million from taxpayers through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The charges, filed in Hennepin County, add yet another case to a state already drowning in welfare fraud scandals, and raise fresh questions about why Minnesota's oversight apparatus keeps failing to catch the schemes before private companies do.
The complaint states that Mohamed "received $1,141,082 in EBT payments" and that the operation "involved a high degree of sophistication or planning or occurred over a lengthy period of time." If found guilty, Mohamed faces up to 20 years in prison or a $100,000 fine.
The alleged scheme worked like this: Mohamed used EBT cards registered to other people to purchase items at Sam's Club and Costco in 2021, then resold those goods in his own store. Hennepin County authorities say they observed Mohamed making the purchases and followed him back to his shop with the merchandise, Fox News Digital reported.
The case lands in the middle of a massive and still-expanding fraud scandal across Minnesota's social services programs. Federal prosecutors have estimated that fraud against 14 Medicaid programs in the state could total $9 billion, a figure so large it has drawn national attention and congressional scrutiny.
Minnesota state Sen. Mark Koran, a Republican, told Fox News Digital that the case follows a pattern that should embarrass state agencies. It was Walmart's Global Investigation Team, not a government watchdog, that initially flagged the suspect.
Koran called the case "yet another example of why Minnesota is target number one for fraudsters." He did not mince words about the state's detection failures:
"The sheer volume of welfare programs, combined with the inability of state agencies to detect obvious fraud is alarming. Once again, it was a private retailer, not the state, that uncovered this fraud scheme."
Koran also demanded full accountability for everyone involved in the alleged operation, not just the store owner. "All individuals involved, including the people that sold their EBT cards to Abdi Mohamed, have to be fully prosecuted," he said.
That detail matters. The scheme allegedly required EBT cardholders to hand over their government-issued cards so Mohamed could use them. Those cardholders were participants, not bystanders. Whether they will face charges remains an open question.
Republican state Sen. Michael Holmstrom offered a blunter assessment of the brazenness on display. He told Fox News Digital the case might be the most openly careless fraud attempt yet:
"We had this guy, Abdi Mohamed, and he named his scam company 'Minnesota Food Grocery LLC.' They aren't even trying, because they have been conditioned to believe there are no consequences."
That line, "conditioned to believe there are no consequences", captures a frustration that runs well beyond this single case. Minnesota Republicans have pushed for months to hold state leadership accountable for the broader fraud crisis, only to meet resistance from the Democratic majority. Earlier this year, Minnesota Democrats blocked an impeachment probe of Governor Tim Walz on a party-line vote even as estimated fraud losses climbed toward $19 billion.
Dalia al-Aqidi, a Republican running for Congress in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District against Rep. Ilhan Omar, connected the Mohamed case to a broader culture of fraud she says has taken root in the state.
"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."
Al-Aqidi said politicians talk about "affordability" as an issue that "keeps them up night," but called the real situation a "cruel joke" because "the money is here to really make a difference for people."
She went further, naming names up the chain. Al-Aqidi told Fox News Digital that the fraudsters "are only half the story" and pointed directly at those administering the programs:
"The other half are the people administering these programs, from the front lines all the way up to Ilhan Omar, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Governor Tim Walz. There has been talk about ending fraud in Minnesota for years. I am going to Washington to actually do it."
Fox News Digital reached out to Walz's office for comment on the case. The governor's response, or lack of one, was not reported. Walz did testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on March 4, 2026, at a hearing examining alleged misuse of federal funds for Minnesota social services and Medicaid programs.
That hearing came amid a broader fight over who deserves credit, and blame, for confronting the fraud. Earlier, FBI Director Patel pushed back publicly after Walz attempted to claim credit for federal fraud raids in Minneapolis, a dispute that laid bare the tension between state and federal authorities over the investigation.
The Mohamed case is a textbook example of the kind of abuse that has plagued SNAP for years. The program provides food assistance to low-income households through EBT cards that function like debit cards. When the system works, it feeds families who need help. When it doesn't, it feeds fraud rings.
In a Fox News op-ed published in March, Brooke Rollins and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the program's vulnerabilities directly:
"Since its inception, SNAP has helped our most vulnerable citizens afford the essential and nutritious food they need. At least, that is what the program is supposed to do."
They added that "over time, however, SNAP has been taken advantage of, allowing many to game the system and leaving millions of vulnerable Americans without healthy, nutrient-dense food options." The op-ed signaled that the administration views SNAP reform as a priority, a position this case only strengthens.
Meanwhile, efforts to investigate the wider fraud network in Minnesota continue to face political headwinds. Democrats in the state legislature have blocked subpoenas of Rep. Ilhan Omar over Feeding Our Future fraud records, frustrating Republican lawmakers who argue transparency is the bare minimum the public deserves.
The pattern is hard to miss. Fraud surfaces. A private company or federal investigators catch it. State agencies scramble. Democratic leaders resist oversight. And taxpayers foot the bill.
Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer has demanded accountability from Walz over the state's fraud probe, alleging the governor is either incompetent or complicit in the theft of billions in taxpayer funds. Those are strong words, but the numbers behind them are real. Nine billion dollars in estimated Medicaid fraud alone makes Minnesota an outlier, and not the kind any state should want to be.
Critics have also raised concerns about the institutional incentives at play. Walz has pushed to give the very agency at the center of the Medicaid fraud crisis even more control over the program, a move that strikes many observers as rewarding failure with expanded authority.
Several questions remain unanswered in the Mohamed case. No plea or public statement from the defendant has been reported. The specific criminal counts have not been detailed in available reporting. And the identities of the EBT cardholders who allegedly handed over their cards, and whether they will face prosecution, remain unknown.
What is known is that the alleged fraud ran from at least 2021 through the filing of charges, a span of years during which state agencies apparently failed to notice more than a million dollars flowing through a single grocery store via other people's benefit cards. It took Walmart's internal investigators to raise the flag.
That fact alone should prompt uncomfortable questions in St. Paul. If a private retailer's fraud team can spot the pattern, why can't the agencies that administer the programs? And if those agencies cannot police the money they distribute, what reforms are needed to protect both taxpayers and the genuinely vulnerable families SNAP is supposed to serve?
Sen. Holmstrom's observation lingers: the alleged fraudsters "aren't even trying" because they've learned that Minnesota's system lets them get away with it. Until the people running that system face real consequences for its failures, the next million-dollar scheme is already underway.
When the watchdogs won't watch, the wolves don't bother hiding.
