Feeding Our Future: Catching up (or not) on the fugitives

Not all the indicted figures in the Feeding Our Future case stuck around to face justice. According to media reports, at least three of the sixty defendants have left the country and have not returned.

Fahad Nur, Defendant No. 32 in the Feeding Our Future case, reportedly fled the country shortly after the first set of search warrants were executed by the FBI back in January 2022.

Nur’s company, The Produce, allegedly received at least $11 million from the free food programs.

In his later Federal indictment in the case, the Department of Justice specifically mentions (p. 33, item 24) Nur’s use of $50,000 Feeding Our Future money as a down payment on the purchase of a home in Coon Rapids. Nur’s interest in the property is on the list of forfeiture items in the indictment (p. 37, item v.).

Not surprisingly, Nur stopped making monthly payments on the property after he left the country last year.

In a lawsuit filed in Anoka County earlier this this month, the company that sold him the property is suing Nur to claw it back. Complicating the matter, the plaintiff alleges that Nur, before he fled America, sold the property to a third-party, who now lives in Nur’s abandoned house. The plaintiff is seeking to evict the new occupant.

Abdikerm Eidleh, Defendant No. 2, was a former employee of Feeding Our Future. His name appears in several of the indictments in the case. Although he reportedly fled the country, to Mogadishu, Somalia, a Freightliner semi truck that he owns received a parking ticket for illegally parking in a residential area of Minneapolis in April 2023. Surprisingly, the resulting fine has been fully paid.

The most recent fugitive is Sade Hashi, Defendant No. 59 in the case. He was a no show for an April 2023 Federal court hearing and his current whereabouts are unknown. It’s not clear how long he’s been gone. An eviction notice filed against him indicates that he stopped paying rent on his apartment in December 2022. Mail sent to his address is returned to sender, with no forwarding address. Not surprisingly, Hashi was a no show for his March 2023 eviction hearing.

Hashi operated restaurant company, Great Lakes, d/b/a Safari Express. His restaurant was unrelated to the Safari Restaurant, subject of a separate indictment in the case. However, court records indicate that Hashi was formerly business partners with some of the Safari Restaurant figures, years ago.

We’ll keep digging.