Three more plead guilty as Feeding Our Future case reaches two-year mark – InForum

ST. PAUL — Two years after the first charges were filed in the massive Feeding Our Future case, three more people associated with the defunct nonprofit pleaded guilty this week to charges related to an alleged $250 million fraud scheme to embezzle federal child nutrition programs.

US Attorney Andy Luger announced the first indictment against four dozen people for 2022. Ultimately, prosecutors would indict 70 people. The first trial took place at the beginning of the year, and another is planned for the fall.

On Friday, September 20, Khadra Abdi, 43, of Minneapolis, admitted that she falsely claimed to have provided 1.1 million meals to children during the pandemic through her company, Shafi'i Tutoring and Homework Help.

Through a Somali interpreter, Abdi said she signed a contract with Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock in April 2020 that guaranteed the nonprofit's sponsorship of a food distribution site in Hopkins.

The Minnesota Department of Education, which oversees state-level food programs, approved her application for a site. Abdi said she filed $3.4 million in reimbursement claims in 2020 and 2021. Prosecutors say she paid a $17,000 kickback to a Feeding Our Future employee in exchange for the sponsorship.

At hearings on Thursday and Wednesday, Abdi's co-defendants Haji Salad and Sharmarke Issa made similar confessions. Salad, who reportedly ran a grocery store called Haji's Kitchen, agreed to repay taxpayers $11 million.

Salad admitted that he falsely claimed to have provided more than 15 million meals, including 140,000 at a single location in Pelican Rapids in October 2021 alone. The city is home to about 2,500 people.

Issa resigned from his position as chairman of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority board in early 2022, shortly after the Feeding Our Future investigation became public.

At his hearing on Wednesday, Issa admitted to defrauding taxpayers of nearly $3.6 million by submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to federal child nutrition programs during the pandemic. The 42-year-old agreed to repay the money and forgo a $785,000 home in Edina that he used it to buy.

All defendants who pleaded guilty must also forfeit property, vehicles and other items they purchased with proceeds from the fraud.

In fraud cases, the punishment depends on the amount of money stolen. The U.S. Attorney's Office of Minnesota and Salad's lawyer agreed on a recommended range of five to six and a half years. Issa and Abdi would receive less prison time because they had stolen smaller amounts. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel has the final say.

Because there are so many defendants, prosecutors divide them into smaller groups, generally based on the companies involved.

In the spring, seven people with ties to a Shakopee restaurant went on trial. The jury found five of them guilty and two acquitted. But during closing arguments, one juror reported that someone showed up at her home with $120,000 in cash in a Hallmark gift bag and promised more in exchange for an acquittal.

That prompted prosecutors to open a whole new case. Three of the defendants in the trial – including one who was acquitted of fraud charges – were charged with bribing the jury. Two other people were also charged, including the money courier. Two weeks ago, the woman who delivered the bribe pleaded guilty.

Twenty-six people were convicted in the fraud cases. Of the five people found guilty in the trial, four are expected to be sentenced in mid-October. They are expected to be the first to be sentenced in the Feeding Our Future case.

Two other defendants from the Haji's Kitchen group are scheduled to go on trial in early November. Brasel has set a full schedule for half a dozen more trials next year.

The alleged ringleader of the scam, Aimee Bock of Feeding Our Future, is expected to go on trial along with 11 co-defendants. Because the group is so large, the judge plans to split them into smaller groups. The separate trials are scheduled for February, March and April.