MINNEAPOLIS – Ousman Camara, age 45, was indicted today in a nine-count indictment with wire fraud, federal programs bribery, and money laundering for his participation in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen. Camara is the 77th defendant indicted in what has been identified as the largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the country.
Defendant Camara was the owner of K’s Dollar Grocery and Deli, a small storefront grocery store in north Minneapolis. In August 2015, the USDA disqualified Camara and his store, K’s Grocery, from participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) due to suspected fraud. In September 2020, Camara enrolled K’s Grocery in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. In 2020 and 2021, Camara fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to 1,000 children a day, seven days a week, at his site. In reality, Camara did no such thing. Instead, he defrauded the program and stole money meant to feed hungry children.
Camara claimed to have served more than 300,000 meals to children, for which he claimed to be entitled to more than $1 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program reminbursement funds. Camara did not use these funds to purchase food to feed children. Instead, he used the money to fund his lifestyle, pay his credit card bills, and buy a building in north Minneapolis. Camara wired more than $100,000 in fraud proceeds abroad. Camara also paid approximately $87,000 in kickbacks to a Feeding Our Future employee in exchange for his sponsorship and submission of Camara’s fraudulent claims.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph H Thompson, Harry M. Jacobs, and Daniel W. Bobier are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
