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Crime, Law and Justice
Matt Sepic
Updated:

Three more plead guilty as Feeding Our Future case hits 2 year mark

A man points to a screen showing evidence
U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Andrew Luger (center) shows off photos of falsified meal cards that were used to claim thousands of children were participating in the program.
Ben Hovland | MPR News 2022

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Two years after the first indictments were unsealed in the the huge Feeding Our Future case, three more people connected to the defunct nonprofit pleaded guilty this week for their roles in an alleged $250 million scheme to defraud government child nutrition programs.

U.S. Attorney Andy Luger announced the first batch of charges in 2022 against four dozen people. Ultimately, prosecutors would charge 70 people. The first trial took place earlier this year, and another is scheduled for the fall.

On Friday, Khadra Abdi, 43, of Minneapolis admitted that through her business, Shafi’i Tutoring and Homework Help, she falsely claimed serving 1.1 million meals to children during the pandemic.

Speaking through a Somali interpreter, Abdi said that in April of 2020, she signed a contract with Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock for the nonprofit group to sponsor a meal site in Hopkins.

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

At plea hearings Thursday and Wednesday, Abdi’s co-defendants Haji Salad and Sharmarke Issa made similar admissions. Salad, who ran a purported food vendor called Haji’s Kitchen, agreed to repay $11 million to taxpayers.

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

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

At his plea hearing Wednesday, Issa admitted that he defrauded taxpayers out of nearly $3.6 million by submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to government child nutrition programs during the pandemic. The 42-year-old agreed to repay the cash, and forfeit a $785,000 Edina home that he bought with it.

All of the defendants who pleaded guilty must similarly forfeit property, vehicles and other items that they bought with the fraud proceeds.

In fraud cases, sentences are proportionate to the amount of money stolen. The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office and Salad’s attorney agreed on a recommended range of five to six-and-a-half years. Issa and Abdi would receive less prison time because they took smaller amounts. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel has the final say.

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

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

That led federal prosecutors to file a whole new case. Three of the defendants from the trial — including one who was acquitted of fraud — were charged with jury bribery. Two others were also indicted, including the cash courier. Two weeks ago, the woman who delivered that bribe pleaded guilty.

In the fraud cases specifically, 26 people stand convicted. Of the five found guilty at trial, four face sentencing in mid-October. They’re expected to be the first in the Feeding Our Future case to be sentenced.

Two other defendants in the Haji’s Kitchen group are scheduled to stand trial in early November. Brasel has set a busy schedule of a half dozen additional trials for next year.

The alleged ringleader of the scam, Feeding Our Future’s Aimee Bock, is expected to face trial along with 11 co-defendants. Because that group is so large, the judge plans to split them into small groups, with separate trials set for February, March and April.