Feeding Our Future: guilty pleas #25 and #26 today, #27 tomorrow, #28 on Thursday

It’s shaping up to be a big week in the Feeding Our Future scandal, with four guilty pleas expected to be entered.

Ahead of their federal trial scheduled to begin on Monday, February 3, the two Salah brothers are scheduled to enter guilty pleas in the sprawling free-food scandal. The trial was expected to last for a full month.

The Monday trial was to feature four (4) of the seventy (70) defendants in the overall case:

• Aimee Bock, Feeding Our Future founder and CEO and Defendant No. 1, overall
• Salim Said, co-owner of Safari Restaurant, No. 3
• Abdulkadir Salah, co-owner of Safari Restaurant, No. 4
• Abdi Salah, former policy aide to Mayor Jacob Frey, No. 6

It appears the last two, Abdulkadir (age 38) and Abdi Salah (age 37), who are brothers, will be entering guilty pleas today at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. One is scheduled for a 10:30 hearing, with the other for 1:30 pm. Both hearings are scheduled before the District’s Chief Judge, Patrick Schiltz.

Abdulkadir went first this morning. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported from inside the courtroom,

As he entered his plea, he admitted that Bock received kickbacks from the program and that he made those payments to her.

Abdulkadir pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and faces between 9 and 11 years in prison, the Star Tribune reported. According to the plea agreement filed today, he agrees that he is responsible for $44 million in restitution, jointly and severally along with his co-defendants. Taxpayers will likely see very little of that money returned.

Abdi’s plea deal likely gets Mayor Frey off the hook for testifying at the upcoming trial. Abdi’s proposed sentence ranges from 21 to 27 months.

If all goes according to plan today, the Salah brothers will become guilty pleas Nos. 25 and 26 in the case. They would also be listed as convictions Nos. 30 and 31 overall, including the five defendants convicted at trial last year.

Here is the press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Guilty plea No. 27 and conviction No. 32 could come as early as tomorrow afternoon. Sharmake Jama is overall Defendant No. 39, and the lead defendant of the extended Jama family group associated with the Brava Restaurant of Rochester.

Sharmake would be the first of the six-member Jama/Brava group to plead guilty. Defendant No. 42, Fartun Jama, died of natural causes back in 2023.

The court calendar also reveals that Mohamed Noor, owner of Xogmaal Media and Defendant No. 49, is scheduled to enter a guilty plea on Thursday (Guilty Plea No. 28, Conviction No. 33). We visited his corporate offices in south Minneapolis a few years ago,

Noor’s trial date had been set for early August.

Presumably, the trial involving the remaining defendants, Bock and Said, will go on as scheduled next week.

Last minute filings continue to be made in that docket. Defendant Said has posted an exhibit list for his case, including two items (D3-17 and D3-42) referencing videos of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-5) at his Safari Restaurant. Three years ago, I wrote a piece about the connections between Rep. Omar and Safari. I updated the piece in October 2022 including a link to one video.

Developing…