Feeding Our Future: mercy of the court

A key figure in the free-food scandal will be up for sentencing next week, Thursday, July 17. Abdiaziz Shafii Farah was convicted on 23 counts (acquitted on 1) in the first Feeding Our Future trial, which ended more than a year ago. Farah served as the lead defendant in that case and the related juror bribery case, in which he pled guilty. Farah and his cohort took more than $47 million out of the free-food programs, meant to feed low-income children during the COVID pandemic. Back in March 2022, Farah attempted to flee the country on a fraudulently obtained passport.

Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 30 years in prison, in total.

Next week’s sentencing will address just the 23 fraud charges. Farah, now age 36, has been in federal custody, held at the Sherburne County jail, since the end of the trial.

The prosecution’s sentencing memo runs for 19 pages. The reply filed by the defense runs for 39 pages, with an additional 249 pages (not a typo) of exhibits. Farah is throwing himself on the mercy of the court. At no point does Farah recommend a sentence length, other than less.

The prosecutors’ memo mostly recaps the scandal and uses trial exhibits to remind the presiding judge, Nancy Brasel, of Farah’s specific role in the scheme(s). Prosecutors recount the swag purchased, including a Porsche, a Tesla, a GMC truck, and properties in Kenya, Kentucky, and Minnesota, among other items.

The defense memo covers nearly every topic under the sun except the actions for which Farah is being sentenced.

Both the prosecution and defense tell versions of Farah’s backstory. He arrived in America as a refugee in his early teens. He received a full scholarship to college from a corporate foundation. He earned degrees from two local public universities.

For a time, he worked for the state Dept. of Transportation, then later for the Metropolitan Council. He founded a state-taxpayer-funded charter school.

At every point since Farah’s arrival in America, he has been generously supported by federal, state, and local taxpayers. He has repaid that generosity by conducting part of the largest fraud against taxpayers in state history.

The defense recounts these facts (and others) to argue for a lower sentence. Farah describes life in the war-torn Somalia of his youth and the harsh conditions of the refugee camp in Kenya. The United States and Minnesota rescued Farah and his extended family from all of that, for which he displays zero gratitude.

The first name that appears in the defense brief, after Farah himself, is the cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried (p. 2). Farah argues that Bankman-Fried received a mere 25 years for his massive fraud, so Farah should receive far less.

I should not have to point out that Bankman-Fried did not steal from hungry children, or taxpayers. Also, for the most part, his victims were made whole on their losses, due to rising cryptocurrency markets.

In contrast, and despite the best efforts of prosecutors, little of what Mr. Farah stole has been recovered, as a significant portion of it was sent overseas (some to China). Taxpayers have not been, nor will they ever be made whole by Mr. Farah.

Farah mentions (p. 2 and pp. 25-27) that Bankman-Fried donated to both Democratic and Republican politicians. Farah seems to imply that he should receive relief because Farah and his co-conspirators donated exclusively to Democrats.

Farah cites other famous white-collar crooks who got lesser sentences. On page 3, Farah cites the Minnesota state sentencing guidelines, where first-time offenders are almost never sent to jail, even for the most violent and notorious crimes.

On pages 8 and 9. Farah appears to deny his actual guilt in the case, continuing to back theories that failed in both of the Feeding Our Future trials.

Notwithstanding his bribery conviction, on p. 15 Farah asserts he has a zero criminal history. There are a number of prominent physicists who insist that time itself does not exist in the universe, so in that model, Farah could be both correct and incorrect in infinite variations.

One of Farah’s co-defendants, Mukhtar Shariff, has already been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison.

Farah will be just the fifth defendant sentenced in the case, out of the 47 convicted so far. A co-defendant, Hayat Nur, is scheduled to be sentenced on August 26.