Feeding Our Future: 38th guilty plea

Abdihakim Ahmed entered the 38th guilty plea, overall, in the Feeding Our Future case this morning. In a 35-minute hearing before Judge Nancy Brasel at the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, Ahmed pled guilty to two counts in the sprawling free-food scandal.

Ahmed is Defendant No. 7 in the case, and now becomes the 45th person convicted, so far, including guilty pleas and trial verdicts. The DOJ’s press release on the case can be read here.

Ahmed is one of the Safari Restaurant group of defendants,

He is the one circled in red, above. Ahmed started the fake distribution site ASA Limited. Ahmed was the first “A” in the company name. His free-food distribution site was located on McKnight Road in St. Paul, in the Shamrock Plaza strip mall, near a local mosque. His group took some $7.3 million out of the free food programs according to the plea agreement. Ahmed personally owes restitution in the amount of $2.2 million.

Sentencing guidelines included in his plea agreement call for a prison term of 4 to 5 years. Forfeitures include $1,200 from a bank account, a Mini Cooper, and his interest in an abandoned Brooklyn Park restaurant.

We may soon see a flood of guilty pleas in the case, following the verdicts last week (guilty on all counts) in the six-week trial of two of the scandal’s leading figures, Aimee Bock of Feeding Our Future and Salim Said of Safari Restaurant.

Ahmed himself was scheduled to go to trial next month. With Ahmed’s guilty plea on file, the only remaining defendant in the April batch is Hamdi Omar (No. 12), who happens to be eight months’ pregnant. I’m guessing that the April trial won’t happen.

There have been a total of 70 defendants indicted so far. 38 have pled guilty, 7 have been convicted at trial, and two were acquitted. That leaves 23 remaining.

Of the 23, four are international fugitives from justice and one defendant died of natural causes. That leaves 18 defendants remaining to be processed.

None of the above totals include the related attempted juror bribery case. In that case, five individuals were indicted. Two have already pled guilty, with a third guilty plea scheduled for next month.

Ironically, one of the defendants acquitted in the first fraud trial is now in custody awaiting trial in the bribery case.

Stay turned.