Minnesota grocery store owner charged in alleged $1M EBT food stamp fraud
Minnesota Congressman Emmer lashes out at Governor Walz over fraud investigation
Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer is demanding that Governor Tim Walz be held accountable for the state’s massive fraud investigation. Emmer highlights a culture of corruption by claiming Walz was either incompetent or complicit in the theft of $9 billion in taxpayer funds. Federal prosecutors estimate the fraud against 14 Medicaid programs could total $9 billion.
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Authorities in Minnesota have filed criminal charges against a man accused of a food stamp fraud scheme that defrauded taxpayers of more than $1 million.
Abdidwahid Mohamed, owner of Minnesota Food Grocery LLC, allegedly used EBT cards registered to others to purchase items from Sam’s Club and Costco in 2021 and then resold them at his store. Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.
Authorities in Hennepin County said they observed Mohamed shopping and followed him to his store with the merchandise. While security cameras and GPS data supported this, investigators stated that most EBT card holders were either out of the country or had never shopped at the stores they used.
SNAP, the federal program allegedly exploited by Mohamed, provides food assistance to low-income households through EBT cards that function as debit cards.
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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz testifies at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 4, 2026. The hearing examined allegations of misuse of federal funds for Minnesota social services and Medicaid programs. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“Mohamed received $1,141,082 in EBT payments,” according to the complaint, adding that the scheme “involved a high degree of complexity or planning or occurred over an extended period of time.”
If convicted, Mohamed faces up to 20 years in prison or a $100,000 fine.
“Minneapolis did not become the fraud capital of America by accident,” Republican Dalia al-Aqidi, who is running for Congress in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), told Fox News Digital. “It was well deserved. This week, a grocer is accused of charging $1.1 million in charges to other people’s EBT cards. Next week, something else will happen, but the bill will always fall on taxpayer-paying Minnesotans.”
Aqidi says families told him that “affordability” was “what keeps them up at night” and told “the cruel joke that money is really here to make a difference for people.”
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“It’s just lining the wrong pockets and paying for luxury cars and homes on the other side of the world. The scammers are only half the story. The other half is the people who run these programs, from the front lines to Ilhan Omar to Attorney General Keith Ellison to Governor Tim Walz. There’s been talk about ending fraud in Minnesota for years. I’m going to Washington to actually do it.”
Speaking to Fox News Digital, two Republican lawmakers in Minnesota echoed a similar sentiment; including Republican state Sen. Mark Koran, who said the situation was “yet another example of Minnesota being the number one target for scammers.”
“The abundance of outreach programs, coupled with the failure of government agencies to detect apparent fraud, is concerning. Once again, it was a private retailer, not the government, that uncovered this fraud scheme,” Koran said, referring to the fact that the suspect was initially flagged by Walmart’s Global Investigation Team. he added.
“All people involved in the incident, including those who sold the EBT cards to Abdi Mohamed, need to be fully prosecuted,” Koran said. People who come here to steal from hard-working Minnesota taxpayers deserve serious consequences.
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Pictured above is a sign at the entrance of a supermarket that reads “Welcome EBT Customers” along with the SNAP logo. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Republican Minnesota state Sen. Michael Holmstrom reacted to the news, telling Fox News Digital, “This might be the laziest news ever.”
“We had a guy named Abdi Mohamed and he called his fraudulent company ‘Minnesota Food Grocery LLC.’ They don’t even try because they are conditioned to believe there will be no consequences.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Walz’s office for comment.
The charges come amid a major fraud scandal that has emerged in Minnesota in recent months within social service programs, particularly within the Somali community. renewed edition It’s about food stamp fraud from the Trump administration.
Rollins and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Since its inception, SNAP has helped our most vulnerable citizens afford the essential and nutritious food they need,” he wrote in one post. Fox News column In March. “At least that’s what the program is supposed to do.
“But over time, SNAP has been exploited, allowing many people to game the system, leaving millions of vulnerable Americans without healthy, nutrient-dense food options.”
