Feeding Our Future: ThinkTechAct revisited

In which your correspondent returns to Edina.

Subject Premises No. 1 in the third FBI search warrant in the Feeding Our Future case is this co-working office facility located at the Southdale Mall complex in Edina.

Suite 160 of the office houses the headquarters of the ThinkTechAct Foundation, a nonprofit formed in 2016 by Mahad Ibrahim. It is also the home of Ibrahim’s for-profit company, Mind Foundry Learning Center, Inc., which he founded later in 2016, on Christmas Day.

According to records at the Internal Revenue Service, the IRS revoked ThinkTechAct’s nonprofit status in 2020 for failure to file required Form 990 tax returns. It does not appear to have been reinstated.

The only tax return on record for the entity was filed in 2016 and shows revenue of less than $50,000. ThinkTechAct does not appear to be registered with the state Attorney General’s office.

The FBI raided the ThinkTechAct office on January 20.

The FBI search warrant closely ties Ibrahim — a political donor to Ilhan Omar — to the co-owners of Empire Cuisine & Market of Shakopee. The U.S. Attorney’s office alleges that Ibrahim received more than $21 million from the federal free-food programs, most of which was passed on to entities controlled by the Empire owners.

In records on file with the state Department of Education, ThinkTechAct is shown as hosting six free-food distribution sites. Mind Foundry is shown as the host for a further 18 locations.

Quite an operation to run out of a coworking space at a suburban shopping mall.