Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed 23 lawsuits this week against nonprofits his office claims were created or revived to defraud the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

The lawsuits were filed after an investigation revealed nonprofits created or revived around the start of the pandemic capitalized on the Federal Child Nutrition Program but did not appear to have legitimate nonprofit activities on sites they claimed to open, according to a news release by the attorney general’s office.

The independent civil investigation conducted by the charities division of the attorney general’s office revealed evidence that bank records were abandoned or marked with false addresses, failed to comply with state and federal reporting requirements that would have allowed regulators to detect fraud, and failed to comply with the investigation.

The lawsuit claims these findings give grounds to shut the organizations down under Minnesota’s civil nonprofit corporation laws. The complaints were filed in the counties of Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Stearns, and Rice, but Ellison plans to file a motion to consolidate them all in Hennepin County.

“Nonprofits are supposed to benefit the public — not defraud it,” Ellison said in the release.  “Most nonprofits work hard and do good work to help the people of Minnesota — but not these sham organizations. I am seeking to permanently shut down these sham nonprofits so they can’t be revived to defraud the public again.”

The nonprofit defendants in the lawsuits are:

• Academy for Youth Excellence
• Advanced Youth Athletic Development
• African Chamber of Commerce Education
• Bet On Better Future
• Community Enhancement Services Inc.
• Gedo Community Services
• Hobyo Health Care Foundation
• Hope Academy for Youth & Women Empowerment
• Minnesota African Chamber of Commerce
• Minnesota’s Somali Community
• Multiple Community Services, MCS
• Optimum Community Services
• Serving Younger Generation
• Somali American Faribault Education
• South West Metro Youth
• Stigma-Free International
• The Free Minded Institute
• United Enrichment with Heart
• Unity Social Service
• Urban Advantage Services
• Xogmaal Media Group and Xogmaal Services
• Youth Higher Educational Achievement
• Youth Inventor’s Lab

Fraudulent Minnesota nonprofits have been in the spotlight since the Feeding Our Futures fraud case alleged the nonprofit took at least $250 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program, a scheme federal officials have called the largest pandemic fraud in the country. At least 60 co-conspirators have been charged in the case since Ellison’s office announced federal charges in September of last year.