Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is seeking to dissolve 23 nonprofits his office says were created or revived to defraud the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

In 23 separate civil lawsuits filed Wednesday, Ellison’s office alleges the entities collected reimbursements from the program for meals they never provided.

Most of the “sham nonprofits” named in the suits were headed by people who have been indicted in the Feeding Our Future criminal investigation, Ellison’s office said in a news release.

“An independent civil investigation conducted by the Charities Division of the Attorney General’s Office also revealed that the nonprofits were all created or revived around the start of the pandemic to capitalize on the Federal Child Nutrition Program, did not appear to have legitimate nonprofit activities on site, showed evidence of misuse in bank records when located, were abandoned or gave false addresses, failed to comply with state and federal reporting requirements that would have allowed regulators to detect the fraud, and failed to comply with the Attorney General’s investigation — all providing grounds to shut the organizations down under Minnesota’s civil nonprofit corporation laws,” Ellison’s office said in a news release.

A majority of the entities named in the suits are located in Hennepin County, while three are in Ramsey County, one is in Dakota County, one is in Rice County and one is in Stearns County.