Feeding Our Future: conviction #69

Abdirashid Bixi Dool, age 37, became the 69th defendant convicted in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal.

Dool entered a guilty plea in federal court in downtown Minneapolis this afternoon. Your correspondent was there.

Dool pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and faces around three years in federal prison, according to the sentencing guidelines included in the plea agreement.

Dool admitted to taking more than one million dollars from the free-food program, working with the Bilaal Mosque of Pelican Rapids and a separate nonprofit company.

The plea agreement records that Dool worked with an unnamed imam at the mosque and a second individual, also unnamed, associated with the nonprofit GEDO Community Services. The scheme ran from March to December of 2021 and claimed to operate feeding sites in Pelican Rapids and Moorhead. Dool emphasized today that he entered the fraud only in its final stages.

As part of the plea agreement, Dool must make amends for the stolen money, agreeing to forfeit some property in Pelican Rapids in addition to a cash settlement. To that end, Dool brought along a cashier’s check for $100,000 this afternoon to begin the restitution process. Sadly for federal taxpayers, the court’s clerk did not immediately accept the payment, citing bureaucratic red tape.

A sentencing date will be scheduled later.