Feeding Our Future fraud trial nears end; only one defendant will call witnesses in his defense

Attorneys for a defendant in the Feeding Our Future trial will begin calling witnesses Wednesday morning after prosecutors rested their case Tuesday.

Attorneys for Mukhtar Shariff plan to call several witnesses over the next two days. Attorneys for the other six defendants on trial told U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel on Tuesday that they do not plan to call witnesses, and that their clients would not testify at trial. Mukhtar has not said in open court whether he will testify.

Prosecutors rested their case about 11:00 a.m. Tuesday after calling 30 witnesses over the last four weeks to testify about the alleged theft of millions of dollars from a federal program aimed at feeding underprivileged children. The joint trial started April 22, and is in its sixth week.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations late this week or early next week after Mukhtar’s attorneys rest their case and prosecutors and defense attorneys present their closing arguments.

Frederick Goetz, one of Mukhtar’s attorneys, told Brasel that he plans to call leaders from the Dar Al Farooq mosque, a forensic accountant, a University of Minnesota professor, an employee from the food distributor Sysco, and investors and a lawyer with the Bloomington development project, Afrique.

During opening statements last month, Goetz said that Mukhtar never defrauded or bribed anyone. Instead, he said, Mukhtar planned to create the country’s largest cultural center for East Africans.

“What he did was pursue a dream, and there’s nothing illegal about that,” Goetz said at the time. “That cultural campus is a place where East African community members can meet, celebrate life’s most important events, and come together.”

Goetz said that the length of the defense’s case had changed from its original plans at the start of the trial—two weeks—to a few days. One of the defense witnesses, Goetz said, cannot testify until next Monday. Brasel blocked off Wednesday through next Tuesday to finish the trial.

The seven defendants are being tried on a total of 41 criminal charges, including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering. They are collectively accused of stealing $41 million from the federal Child Nutrition Program.

Shortly after the prosecution rested its case Tuesday, all of the defense teams made motions asking Brasel to dismiss their clients’ cases because of what they described as a lack of sufficient evidence. The request is common in trials. U.S. Assistant Attorney Chelsea Walcker successfully asked Brasel to dismiss the motions, arguing that prosecutors submitted an “avalanche of evidence” to jurors over the last month.

The case is part of a much larger investigation into the alleged theft of $250 million from the Child Nutrition Program. Seventy defendants have been charged in the case, known as the Feeding Our Future case; 18 have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

The alleged fraud involved the Minnesota Department of Education distributing federal funds to sponsor organizations like Feeding Our Future. The sponsor organizations then dispersed those funds to food vendors and food sites, which were supposed to provide ready-to-eat meals to local children.

Several organizations in the money chain reported serving thousands more meals than they actually did—or simply never served any meals at all—in order to receive more federal money, according to prosecutors. Those funds were then allegedly passed through various shell companies before being pocketed by the perpetrators, who used the money to buy cars, property, and other items.

Mukhtar served as the CEO of Afrique Hospitality Group. Prosecutors allege that he used the organization to launder stolen federal food-aid money and pocketed $1.3 million for himself. But Mukhtar’s defense attorneys say that Afrique was a legitimate organization that he helmed for the development of a cultural center and event space in Bloomington that went by the same name and catered to East Africans. The Afrique cultural center is now called Zawadi Center, and opened its doors last fall under new ownership

FBI forensic accountants called by the prosecution testified Tuesday and last week that development of the Zawadi building cost about $1.9 million, and that approximately $973,000 of it came from the stolen money.

Lacramioara Blackwell, an FBI forensic accountant, testified Tuesday and last Friday that she used a methodology of “first in, first out” to identify federal food-aid money going into the Afrique development project. That involved tracing the first deposits and first expenses in a bank account associated with Afrique Hospitality Group, she testified.

The trial resumes Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.

Who’s on trial?

The defendants on trial are facing a total of 41 charges, including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering. They mostly worked for businesses that used Partners in Quality Care as a sponsor.

The defendants are:

• Abdiaziz Farah co-owned Empire Cuisine and Market. Federal prosecutors allege that the Shakopee-based deli and grocery store posed as a meals provider for several food sites, and defrauded the government out of $28 million. Abdiaziz allegedly pocketed more than $8 million for himself. He is also charged with lying on an application to renew his passport after federal agents seized his passport as part of their investigation.

• Mohamed Jama Ismail co-owned Empire Cuisine and Market. Mohamed is Abdiziz’s uncle. He is also owner of MZ Market LLC, which prosecutors allege was a shell company used to launder the stolen money. Mohamed allegedly pocketed $2.2 million. He previously pleaded guilty to passport fraud.

• Abdimajid Nur allegedly created a shell company, Nur Consulting, and laundered stolen money from Empire Cuisine and ThinkTechAct, other alleged shell companies. Abdimajid, who was 21 at the time of his indictment, allegedly pocketed $900,000.

• Hayat Nur allegedly submitted fake meal counts and invoices served at food sites. Court documents identify Hayat as Abdimajid’s sister. Hayat allegedly pocketed $30,000.

• Said Farah co-owned Bushra Wholesalers, which allegedly laundered money by claiming to be a food vendor that provided meals to food sites that then reportedly served children. Court documents identify Said as Abdiaziz’s brother. Said allegedly pocketed more than $1 million.

• Abdiwahab Aftin co-owned Bushra Wholesalers, and allegedly pocketed $435,000.

• Mukhtar Shariff served as CEO of Afrique Hospitality Group, and allegedly used the company to launder stolen money. He allegedly pocketed more than $1.3 million.

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