Feeding Our Future: 49th conviction

Mahad Ibrahim pled guilty to two felony counts this morning at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. Your correspondent was there. Ibrahim is facing years in federal prison and the forfeiture of millions of dollars.

Ibrahim, age 49, was defendant No. 17 in the case, overall (out of 72) and entered guilty plea No. 42 to become the 49th person convicted, so far.

He was all set to go to trial last year with seven co-defendants from the Empire Cuisine group. At the last minute, a health issue rendered his lawyer unavailable. Some of Ibrahim’s co-defendants took advantage of his absence at trial and attempted (unsuccessfully) to pin the whole thing on him.

Ibrahim’s re-scheduled trial was to have begun next month.

Ibrahim holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and was the founder of the nonprofit ThinkTechAct. You may recall that the infamous December 2021 meeting between state Attorney General Keith Ellison and several Feeding Our Future fraudsters took place in Ibrahim’s Edina corporate offices. Ibrahim himself was not present at that meeting.

Ibrahim pled guilty to two counts, one each of wire fraud and money laundering. Four other counts will be dismissed.

The plea agreement reflects a gap in the understanding of the sentencing guidlines between the prosecution and defense. The range goes from just under five years in prison up to 11 years.

Ibrahim agrees to forfeit bank accounts seized by the Feds totaling $2.7 million and an additional $620,000 in equity held in Ibrahim’s Ohio residence. He is also on the hook for restitution up to a maximum amount of $7,324,412.

One interesting item from the plea agreement is that Ibrahim actually spent $1.5 million on food for his more than two dozen food distribution sites around the state. He operated these sites through the sponsorship of both Partners in Nutrition, d/b/a Partners in Quality Care, and Feeding Our Future.

His sentencing will be set for a later date.