A Kenyan citizen has been indicted in Minnesota for allegedly helping launder millions of dollars stolen from a U.S. child nutrition program, extending the reach of America’s largest pandemic fraud case to Nairobi’s doorstep.
- •Federal prosecutors charged Ahmednaji Maalim Aftin Sheikh, 28, with conspiracy to commit international money laundering, making him the 74th defendant in the Feeding Our Future scheme.
- •U.S Prosecutors said Sheikh received millions of dollars from his brother, Abdiaziz Farah, who was convicted earlier this year of orchestrating a US$40 million theft of federal child nutrition funds and sentenced to 28 years in prison.
- •According to court filings, Farah funneled proceeds abroad to Sheikh, who then concealed the money through bulk cash transfers and investments in Kenya’s property market.
“According to the indictment, Ahmednaji Maalim Aftin Sheikh saw this instead as an opportunity to steal from taxpayers and from hungry children. The FBI will use every resource to stop this shameful theft, and to ensure that taxpayer resources are used appropriately for their intended purpose,” said FBI Minneapolis SAC Alvin M. Winston, Sr.
The scheme, carried out between 2020 and 2022, involved funds intended to feed low-income children during the Covid-19 pandemic. U.S Authorities say Sheikh helped purchase a 20% stake in a Kenyan real estate firm, acquired an apartment building in Nairobi’s South C neighborhood near the Nairobi National Park, and bought land in Mandera.
Investigators obtained photos of stacks of cash sent from the U.S. to Sheikh in Kenya, including US$138,000 in August 2021, US$270,000 later that year, and a US$300,000 transfer in December 2021 that was falsely reported as family support. By the end of that month, Sheikh had acknowledged receiving $1.28 million from his brother.
Prosecutors say Sheikh and Farah communicated frequently about their transactions, exchanging text messages boasting about their growing wealth. They also cite evidence of cash smuggling and the use of sham corporate entities to obscure the source of funds.
“Sheikh’s indictment shows yet again what we are up against. It is another window into the many fraud schemes that have seeped into every corner of our state,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said.
Farah’s Family
The case also entangles Farah’s extended family after investigators discovered that an Individual S.D., the sister of Farah’s wife and a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Minnesota, moved into a Burnsville townhome purchased with fraud proceeds. She later married Sheikh in Nairobi in December 2021 and filed a petition in 2023 to sponsor his U.S. immigration. Despite that, Sheikh allegedly applied for the 2026 Green Card lottery in November 2024, falsely claiming to be unmarried.
The indictment highlights the international scope of the pandemic-era fraud and the role of Kenya’s real estate market as a channel for illicit funds. Prosecutors argue that Sheikh played a critical part in shielding money from U.S. investigators by placing it beyond the government’s immediate reach.
Sheikh, who remains in Kenya, faces charges that carry significant prison time if he is extradited and convicted.
Recently, Kenya has moved to tighten its financial system. In June, President William Ruto signed into law new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing amendments aimed at addressing deficiencies that led to the country being placed on the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list in 2024, and the European Union’s
The European Commission also designated Kenya as a high-risk jurisdiction for money laundering this year. Against that backdrop, the U.S. case linking pandemic fraud funds to Kenyan real estate adds urgency to the reforms, highlighting the vulnerability of Nairobi’s property market to cross-border illicit flows.