Feeding Our Future restaurateur started with legitimate work before turning to fraud
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A Twin Cities restaurant owner who partnered with Feeding Our Future to serve free meals during the pandemic testified Monday that the charitable meal service he operated in 2020 started out as legitimate. But then he joined what prosecutors allege was a $250 million scheme to fleece taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during the pandemic.
Abdulkadir Awale pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing $11.8 million from the child nutrition programs after making phony reimbursement requests through his three restaurants, Sabusa King in Hopkins, Nawal Restaurant in Burnsville and Karmel Coffee in Minneapolis. He also pretended to be a food vendor for other fraudulent meal sites.
Awale, 52, testified at the start of the third week of testimony in the trial of Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and Salim Said, who co-owned Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis. Awale was the fourth cooperating defendant prosecutors called to the witness stand.
Awale said that in April 2020, two people from Bock’s nonprofit approached him about serving free meals to children during the pandemic. He agreed, but under questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Ebert, Awale said the small staffs at his restaurants couldn’t keep up with orders for 300 to 400 meals each day.
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“[There were] too many people I cannot control coming inside to grab the food,” Awale said. “My employees were exhausted working so many hours inside.”
Awale said that the pace of cooking and serving that many meals proved so overwhelming that he quit working with Feeding Our Future after five days.
“Were you trying to do it the right way in April 2020?” Ebert asked.
“Yes,” Awale replied.
“And was it easy?”
“No.”
But by November 2020, with COVID continuing to wreak havoc on the restaurant industry, Awale said that his businesses were in trouble and he needed a lifeline.
Awale reconnected with Feeding Our Future employee Abdikerm Eidleh, who’s also among the 70 defendants charged in the case. Eidleh fled the country during the investigation.
“I wanted to make a lot of money the hard way, but the way he told me was different,” Awale said.
As Ebert displayed a fraudulent invoice on the computer monitors, Awale admitted billing a tutoring business adjacent to his restaurant for around 1,500 meals each day. The total for September 2021 at that site alone came to nearly $261,000.
After state regulators began suspecting fraud in the meal programs, they rescinded a temporary rule change that had allowed for-profit restaurants to operate meal distribution sites.
Staff at the Minnesota Department of Education, which distributes federal funds for the programs, contacted Bock to ask about the restaurant sites.
In an email reply shown to jurors, Bock wrote “This site is being staff (sic) by Feeding Our Future. The site operators will not prepare the meals and funds will not be provided, given, or otherwise paid to the site to employ site staff.”
Awale testified that no volunteers from Feeding Our Future worked at his restaurants.
He also recounted a December 2021 meeting attended by 30 to 40 meal program participants. It was at the nonprofit’s St. Anthony headquarters, and Feeding Our Future leaders requested “donations” to cover legal expenses.
The gathering came after Bock filed a lawsuit against MDE accusing the agency of racism after it slowed the nonprofit’s meal site applications for largely Somali-American operators and shut down several sites.
“She explained the difficulty she had with the government and needed donations so she could hire lawyers,” Awale said.
Ebert then displayed a check that Awale wrote to Feeding Our Future for $5,000 and another to an entity named “School Age Consultant” for $2,800. Awale testified that he wrote the smaller check because he was asked and did not know what the consultant group was.
“Throughout your involvement with Feeding Our Future, did you ever write a check to Aimee Bock?” defense attorney Kenneth Udoibok asked on cross examination.
“No,” Awale replied.
Returning to the lectern, Ebert showed Awale bank records for School Age Consultant.
“What does it say for account owner?” Ebert asked.
“Aimee Marie Bock,” Awale replied.
Co-defendant jailed over witness tampering allegations
At a separate court proceeding Monday, a federal magistrate judge in St. Paul revoked the pretrial release of another defendant in the wider case over allegations of witness tampering.
Abdinasir Abshir, who was indicted alongside Bock and Said, is scheduled to face trial this spring.
Last week, Abshir allegedly approached a cooperating defendant who was waiting to testify as a witness at and asked to speak with him in a bathroom.
The witness, Sharmake Jama, refused Abshir’s request. Jama alerted his attorney, who in turn reported the incident to prosecutors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, the lead prosecutor, said the move was troubling in light of an attempt to bribe a juror in the first Feeding Our Future trial in June.
Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright ordered Abshir jailed pending a Friday hearing.