Uber, Lyft drivers sue key driver advocacy group, alleging fraud, lack of transparency

A conflict that has been brewing for months in one of the state’s largest rideshare driver groups burst into the open last week when six former members sued the leader of the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association.

The members are alleging that MULDA President Eid Ali, who helped unite the drivers and spearhead passage of a statewide rideshare bill, has misused the group’s funds and abruptly removed board members seeking transparency after the state bill passed in May.

The law, which goes into effect in December, establishes minimum pay rates for drivers, gives drivers the right to appeal deactivations and increases insurance requirements for rideshare companies.

It also requires rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft to contract with a nonprofit driver advocacy group — such as MULDA — to provide driver education, technical assistance and to handle deactivation appeals.

In the civil lawsuit filed August 30 in Hennepin County, the six members allege Eid came into the organization shortly after drivers began organizing, became their leader, and then used his position to take control of the organization.

The group alleges he then registered other organizations with similar names, MULDA and MULDA-RC, and transferred money out of the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association into his own name or entities he controlled.

Farhan Badel, one of the drivers named in the lawsuit, said drivers are worried about possible financial fraud.

“We want to see who was providing the finances, how it was spent and was it spent within the bylaws of the organization. So there has to be no conflict of interest. We have to make sure that everything was done within good standings,” Farhan said.

Eid declined to comment for this story but longtime MULDA attorney Stephen Cooper described the civil lawsuit as one of the latest attempts at “undermining” the organization and Eid’s credibility.

“All you have right now is the bare claims of some disgruntled guys,” Cooper said.

The Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association incorporated in July 2022, and signed up 280 members that month, collecting more than $60,000 from drivers, according to the lawsuit.

Farhan said he paid $100 to be a member when he joined. Currently the MULDA website lists membership options for drivers at $30 per month on a six- or 12-month basis.

The rift between drivers and Eid began shortly after the rideshare law was signed by Governor Tim Walz on May 28. Upset drivers wanted to boycott the signing ceremony but were convinced to show public support, Farhan said.

According to the lawsuit, four MULDA members, Mustafa Abdile, Ahmed Mohamed, Mohamed Bulle, and Dawit Kassa, were voted off the board at a June 15 meeting that had been called the night before.

MULDA leaders claimed the members in question had recruited drivers to a rival organization, shared confidential data with the rival organization and participated in voting for the rival organization’s interests without consulting the board, according to court documents.

Mediation sessions were organized starting on June 21 by state Senator Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, and other Somali community leaders between Eid and the MULDA members, Farhan said.

The drivers were asking to inspect the bylaws of the organization to see how MULDA was structured. Eid was asked to provide the information but failed to do so during the mediation sessions, according to Farhan.

After the failed meeting, the group sought legal counsel over bringing the rift public.

“Honestly, it’s heartbreaking to see that one individual is destroying the organization, this person who’s supposed to be the hero for the drivers, has completely mismanaged the organization, and is refusing to have a check and balance within the organization, is refusing to have a actual functioning board that can hold him accountable,” Farhan said.

The civil suit isn’t the first time MULDA has faced pushback.

A year ago, a group of drivers left to form a splinter organization, MULDA Members, after also criticizing Eid’s lack of transparency.

The current legal battle now has drivers divided, according to Farhan, who said about 600 rideshare drivers have signed a petition asking for Eid’s resignation.

He said drivers are beginning to question the organization’s and specifically Eid’s involvement in the rideshare legislation.

The idea to have a nonprofit organization as an independent mediator for drivers came from Walz’s advisory task force for rideshare legislation formed after he vetoed a rideshare bill in 2023.

Eid and other members of MULDA served on the task force. Although according to Farhan, the way it was written into law, “heavily favored” MULDA.

“The way it was written is to give MULDA an advantage, right? And it’s within the best interest of the drivers that MULDA does not get that resource center, because MULDA is already heavily influenced by the TNC [rideshare] companies,” Farhan said.

An Uber spokeswoman, Freddi Goldstein, said the company sent out requests for proposals a month ago, but a nonprofit organization has not been selected yet. She said Uber planned to select a nonprofit in the next month to meet the new law’s December 1 deadline.

Cooper said some of the attacks on MULDA in the past have come at times when the organization was fighting for legislation at the city and state levels or when rival rideshare groups were trying to gain influence among drivers.

“These attacks on Eid have been going on for two years each and every time they turn out to be completely baseless,” Cooper said. Before Eid began his work with MULDA, “there was nothing happening for drivers, nothing at all.”

Cooper also said it could be possible that the lawsuit could be an attempt to undermine the organization as TNC companies prepare to pick nonprofits to contract with locally, although Cooper said he couldn’t confirm whether or not MULDA had applied for any contracts yet.

“I mean, it would make total sense that MULDA would submit one because they are the premier organization representing drivers,” Cooper said.

In recent posts on its Facebook page , MULDA has touted an expansion of its Drivers Resource Center, which it says offers resources and help with driver accounts.

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