Dozens of people, perhaps hundreds, linked to a sprawling child nutrition fraud case will never face criminal charges because federal prosecutors don't have the resources to go after every participant.

The case, commonly referred to as Feeding Our Future, the name of the nonprofit at the center of the fraud, has resulted in charges against 72 people. That's just a portion of the hundreds of people prosecutors say falsely claimed to serve huge numbers of meals in federal child nutrition programs during the pandemic.

An attorney for one of the defendants once said federal prosecutors told him about 200 more people could be charged, but the case's lead prosecutor would not give such a number.

"We don't have the resources to charge everyone that commits fraud in the state," said Minnesota's interim top federal prosecutor, Joe Thompson. "We have a really strong team that will work tirelessly to do what needs to get done. Obviously, we're limited by the number of hours in a day."

The Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office has 33 criminal assistant prosecutors, with total attorneys amounting to fewer than 50.

The feds continue to prosecute suspects — including an Apple Valley woman charged Friday with defrauding the program of $1.4 million. In late May, agents arrested another Feeding Our Future defendant before she could board a flight out of the country, according to court records.

Asked whether some people who defrauded the program would likely not face prosecution, Thompson said, "Almost certainly."

"It's not necessarily based on how much [was stolen], but … are we able to charge everyone that was involved? Probably not. Not in this scheme. In every scheme."

Former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has called the case the nation's largest pandemic relief fraud scheme to result in charges. Prosecutors say about $300 million was stolen, and that's just the value of the fraud prosecutors have charged so far. The actual total amount is probably closer to $500 million, Thompson said.

How it played out

Before the pandemic, school districts, after-school programs and day cares largely participated in two federally funded food programs administered by the state to provide free meals to low-income children after school and during the summer.

When schools and day cares closed during the pandemic, regulations were loosened to get food to more people. Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar co-introduced the initial legislation to expand access to free and subsidized meals by making the food program more flexible. That bill was later included in a broader economic stimulus bill approved by Congress. Omar condemned the misuse of funds meant for meals when allegations of fraud surfaced.

For-profit restaurants were allowed to join the program and to-go meals could be distributed beyond those served inside schools and day cares.

While schools and day cares normally served about 100 children per day, some of the new participants began billing for thousands of meals per day.

The number of sites approved by the state soared from 1,210 in 2019 to 2,236 in 2021, according to the Office of the Legislative Auditor. The two big players, Partners in Nutrition in St. Paul and Feeding Our Future in St. Anthony, went from collecting a few million dollars a year before the pandemic to dispersing about $200 million each in 2021.

Former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger, who wasn't involved in this case, said in prosecutions this large, "you simply can't get everybody" because there's not always enough evidence.

"You only have so much prosecutorial resources to go after a certain number of people," he said. "But the reality is, if you've got sufficient evidence to show that a person has engaged in the fraud, generally you go after them."

'Hundreds of participants'

So far, prosecutors have gone after some of the biggest players in the case, most of which operated under Feeding Our Future sponsorship.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Bobier said during his opening statement in the most recent Feeding Our Future trial that the nonprofit "sponsored hundreds of participants in the food program, all fraudulent, claiming reimbursements they did not earn."

Feeding Our Future sponsored about 320 food sites. Of those, charges have been filed against the operators of about 50 of them.

Of the sites where charges have not been filed, including a grocery store, several apartment buildings and townhomes, and mosques, 35 had more than $1 million in reimbursement claims. It's unclear which were legitimate operations and which were a part of the fraud.

The biggest recipient among the Feeding Our Future sites where charges have not been filed was a low-income apartment building in St. Paul where more than $3.4 million worth of meals were reimbursed. A Minneapolis apartment complex was listed as a distribution site for $3.2 million in meals.

New Vision Foundation, a St. Paul nonprofit that teaches disadvantaged youth coding and digital literacy, was reimbursed more than $2.5 million for distributing free meals. Its offices were recently searched by federal agents. No charges related to the site have been filed.

According to the search warrant, New Vision said it distributed 3,000 meals daily at its St. Paul office and another 1,000 at an apartment in Waite Park, which borders St. Cloud. New Vision did not respond to a request for comment.

Prominent connections

One of the most prominent people who participated in the meal programs is Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman's wife, Ilo Amba. Amba ran the nonprofit Urban Advantage Services, which said it fed large numbers of people during the pandemic.

Last year, Attorney General Keith Ellison shut down the nonprofit, alleging Amba created it as a "sham" charity to enrich herself and her family. Osman declined to comment and Amba did not respond to a request for comment. She has not been criminally charged.

Urban Advantage was reimbursed more than $461,500 in federal funds in 2020-2021, according to the Minnesota Department of Education, which administers the federal food programs. The nonprofit ceased operations in January 2022, the month the federal investigation became public as multiple homes and businesses were raided by the FBI.

Abshir Omar was a former key aide to Bernie Sanders' Iowa presidential campaign before he became a Feeding Our Future consultant. He was also deputy director of a nonprofit called Tasho, the third-largest Feeding Our Future site whose leaders have not been charged. Tasho ran six food sites sponsored by Feeding Our Future, claiming to distribute 4,000 meals per day. It was reimbursed $2.7 million, according to state records.

Omar recently made headlines when he turned up in an audio recording of a meeting with Ellison and several people connected to the Feeding Our Future case about one month before the FBI raids. In the meeting, Omar offered to put money and political muscle behind Ellison if he would be a "true and steadfast partner to fight for basic justice." However, Ellison declined the offer of political support. Omar did not respond to a request for comment.

No charges have been filed against Partners in Nutrition CEO Kara Lomen or any other leaders of the St. Paul nonprofit. Lomen and former Feeding Our Future CEO Aimee Bock were friends and business partners who ran Partners in Nutrition to help child care centers get federal meal money. After a falling out in 2018, Bock took over Feeding Our Future and started competing with Lomen.

Both Partners in Nutrition and Feeding Our Future grew exponentially during the pandemic, and many of the people charged were also under Partners in Nutrition's supervision. Bock was convicted in March of seven crimes. Partners in Nutrition leaders have long denied wrongdoing. The nonprofit shut down in 2022, after the state terminated it as a meals program sponsor following the FBI raids.

The state's third-biggest meals program provider at the time was Youth Leadership Academy in Minneapolis, also known as Gar Gaar Family Services, created during the pandemic to feed the Somali community. The nonprofit was reimbursed $21 million for sites that reported serving more than 7 million meals in three months.

The state accused Youth Leadership Academy of severely mismanaging its finances and barred it from a second meals program in December 2021, one month before the federal raids. No charges have been filed against leaders of the organization.

An attorney who has represented Youth Leadership Academy, Barbara Berens, said the nonprofit hasn't been charged because it didn't engage in the sort of conduct that Feeding Our Future did, and cooperated with the state.

"We still take the position they were wrongly denied that application," Berens said.

In December, the nonprofit agreed to dissolve as part of a settlement agreement with the state.

Jeff Hargarten and Jeff Meitrodt of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.