Feeding Our Future: 47th conviction in the books
It took a third try, but Ahmed Ghedi. defendant No. 13 in the sprawling free-food scandal, entered the 40th guilty plea in the case to become the 47th person convicted.
The USAO’s press release can be read here.
Ghedi took ill last week, on the day he was originally scheduled to plead guilty. The date was postponed, and then postponed again, for his recovery. However, the third time was the charm, and all proceeded according to plan this morning in federal court in downtown Minneapolis.
Ghedi was associated with the Safari Restaurant group of defendants, and I outlined his role in the scheme in this prior post.
Today, Ghedi pled guilty to two felony counts, one each of wire fraud and money laundering. The maximum sentence for both could have, theoretically, seen him behind bars for 30 years.
In the event, his plea agreement calls for a prison sentence of between 37 and 57 months (3 to 5 years) and restitution/forfeiture of $2.8 million.
Highlighted on the long list of forfeited property is a $115,000 Cadillac Escalade.
Ghedi remains free for now, with a sentencing date to be scheduled in the future. He had been scheduled to stand trial in August with several co-defendants.
One of Ghedi’s August co-defendants, Hamdi Omar (No. 12), was in court this afternoon for the purpose of discarding her lawyer, just 53 days before her scheduled trial date of August 18. The motion was denied.
Another August co-defendant, Abdirahman Ahmed (No. 14) had done the same thing last week.
A third co-defendant, Asad Abshir (No. 11) filed a motion today to postpone the trial for purely personal convenience.
All three had been originally indicted nearly three years ago in this case. The August 2025 trial date for this group of defendants was originally set last year and has already been postponed by a week. From today’s filing:
It would be a very difficult burden on Mr. Abshir and his recently reunited family to undergo a several week trial at this time.
No doubt. But when won’t that be true? Mr. Abshir is unwilling to share specifics but believes he may be available sometime after November 1. Of course, he knows that other Feeding Our Future trials are already scheduled through the end of 2025 and into 2026.
Prosecutors, so far, are opposing any further delays.
Justice delayed is justice denied.