Another Feeding Our Future defendant goes on the lam. Unexpectedly.

Defendant No. 59 was a no-show in Federal court last week. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

The always alert Lou Raguse of KARE 11 reported on this new development in the case yesterday. Raguse writes,

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota has not been aggressively seeking detention for the suspects charged in the $250 million pandemic fraud case known as the “Feeding our Future” case. Now, one of the latest people to be charged did not show up at his scheduled first court appearance and the government does not know where he is.

The fugitive in question (one of several fugitives among the 60 defendants) is named Sade Osman Hashi. In his indictment in the case, the U.S. Attorney accuses Hashi of taking $5.7 million out of the free food programs. Hashi’s companies, Safari Express (a different entity than Safari Restaurant) and Great Lakes, worked with both the nonprofits Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition. Records kept by the state Department of Education reveal that Hashi’s Safari Express also worked with a third free food nonprofit, not named in any indictment.

Unlike Hashi, Feeding Our Future defendant No. 55, Abdikadir Kadiye, was added to an expanded Haji’s Kitchen indictment. Kadiye was featured at the U.S. Attorney’s press conference last month on the latest batch of indictments for his efforts to (not kidding) purchase a laundromat to enable his alleged money laundering.

In the revised indictment, Kadiye is accused of taking $1.7 million (paragraph 27) out of the free food programs through his company, Hobyo Health Care Foundation. Hobyo operated several food distribution sites under the Partners in Nutrition banner.

The U.S. Attorney alleges (p. 30, para. d) that Kadiye sent $20,000 toward the purchase of the laundromat in December 2021. As it happens, that laundromat, located on 1st Avenue South in Minneapolis, was purchased in February 2022 at a price of over $1.1 million. State Sen. Steve Drazkowsi (R-Mazeppa) visited the laundromat last week and posted this video on Facebook. A screenshot,

Sen. Drazkowski reports that the laundromat is closed, padlocked, and undergoing a conversion to a daycare facility. If so, the newly minted childcare facility is in for some stiff competition.

The laundromat is located on the west side of the busy intersection of Interstate I-35W and Lake Street in south Minneapolis. Within three blocks of the former laundromat, there are no fewer than ten childcare facilities licensed by the state Department of Human Services.

One of the ten appears to be registered to Kadiye himself. Six of the ten were previously enrolled in the free food programs, either under Feeding Our Future or Partners in Nutrition.

Two are notable for the fact that they are suing the state Department of Education (through Partners in Nutrition) for unpaid food invoices. We have previously noted Intown, which used the food vendor S&S Catering.

Ten child care centers in three blocks. And they say that Minnesota is experiencing a child care shortage.