Feeding Our Future: 7th sentence handed down

This morning, at the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, Judge Nancy Brasel handed down just the 7th sentence in the sprawling Feeding Our Future fraud scandal. [The related juror bribery case has produced additional prison sentences.]

KSTP-5 reports,

Feeding Our Future defendant sentenced to over 1 year in prison

Sentenced today was Abdul Abubakar Ali, Defendant No. 29 in the free-food scandal (out of 79, so far) and he was just the 4th individual to plead guilty (out of 63, so far), all the way back in October 2022. That plea agreement included a prison sentence guideline of between 30 and 37 months.

Prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of 3 1/2 years. Today’s sentence represents a significant downward departure from the original deal.

KSTP adds,

As previously reported, Ali used nonprofit Youth Investors [sic] Lab to enroll in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. He claimed to serve roughly 1.5 million meals total and that the meals were provided by S & S Catering.

According to court records, Youth Inventors Lab took more than $3.6 million out of the free-food program back in 2021. Restitution in the amount of $122,698 was due immediately this morning.

The U.K. Daily Mail didn’t think much of today’s result. They report,

Somali fraudster handed laughably light sentence by Minneapolis judge over $3m taxpayer fraud

We have many more Feeding Our Future-related court events coming up, starting as early as tomorrow: