This is a disgrace. A Somali woman stole $5.6 million and received a six-month prison sentence. It is a clear invitation for others to do the same. She earns one million dollars per month that she serves. That seems worth stealing to a thief.
ZamZam Jama doesn’t have to return all the money or pay much of a price for what she has done. She only has to pay back $491,000.
Watch:
BREAKING – Minnesota Judge Nancy Brasel has sentenced Somali Feed Our Future fraudster Zamzam Jama, who stole $5.6 million, to only six months in prison, just a day after giving another Somali fraudster a one-year sentence. pic.twitter.com/Tp1iV48JlR
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) April 1, 2026
Jama’s conviction was tied to the misuse of federal pandemic relief funds intended to provide meals for low-income children.
Stealing from the Poor to Make Foreigners Rich
Federal investigators described it as one of the largest pandemic-related fraud cases uncovered in Minnesota. A second Somali fraudster, who stole half a million dollars, was handed a mere six months in jail by a Minneapolis judge, just a day after one of her co-conspirators was sentenced to a year.
The scale of these schemes is stunning. However, they will keep doing it because they aren’t paying much of a price.
A separate fraudulent COVID-19 test billing scam out of Chicago cost the government some $83 million.
CBS News investigated some of the most corrupt in December:
Minnesota fraudsters appear to have made off with more taxpayer money than any other individual scheme. Dozens of people in that state have been charged, and more than 50 have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
But the review of court files, government audits, and investigative documents identified at least 20 other cases that each cost taxpayers at least $1 million. At least nine known cases cost more than $10 million apiece.
Outside the Minnesota case, the next most costly fraud cases were highlighted by a related pair of Paycheck Protection Program loan scams run out of Arizona that defrauded the federal government of $109 million and $63 million. The program, known as PPP, was intended to provide businesses forgivable loans to keep workers on their payrolls while they were shut down or operating at a loss because of public-health restrictions.
A separate fraudulent COVID-19 test billing scam out of Chicago cost the government some $83 million.
There is so much more.