Feeding Our Future: Who’s next?

The Minnesota Star Tribune reports on the hundreds of suspects never charged in the free-food scandal. A non-paywall version can be found here. The headline:

‘Hundreds’ had ties to Feeding Our Future nutrition fraud case. Many may not face charges.

Why not? The short answer is that it takes three to four years to bring a case to trial in federal court. Not even the U.S. government has the resources to prosecute hundreds of suspects in a single scam. Prosecutors recently indicted two more individuals, bringing the total number of defendants to 72.

Of those, 46 have pled guilty or have been convicted at trial, so far, with another guilty plea expected later this week.

It’s clear that the federal strategy is to follow the money. In the most recent courtroom Feeding Our Future (FOF) trial, prosecutors introduced a spreadsheet (Exhibit X-1) listing all organizations making food reimbursement claims through FOF, ranked by $ amount (not all claims were ultimately paid).

Of the top 25 organizations listed, 24 are associated with persons already indicted or named in search warrants made public. From the Star Tribune:

Prosecutors allege about $300 million was stolen, and that’s just the value of the fraud prosecutors have charged 72 people with so far. The actual total amount is probably closer to $500 million, [U.S. Attorney Joe] Thompson said.

So, who may (or may not) be next? The Star Tribune names names.

Partners in Nutrition in St. Paul and Feeding Our Future in St. Anthony, went from collecting a few million dollars a year before the pandemic to dispersing about $200 million each in 2021.

Digging deeper:

Of the remaining sites where charges have not been filed, 35 had more than $1 million in reimbursement claims, including a grocery store, several apartment buildings and townhomes, and mosques. It is unclear which were legitimate operations and which were a part of the fraud scheme.

Of those 35 claiming more than $1 million, by my reckoning, only between two and five of them were legitimate operations. The Star Tribune notes:

One of the most prominent people who participated in the meal programs is Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman’s wife, Ilo Amba. Amba ran the nonprofit Urban Advantage Services, which said it fed large numbers of people during the pandemic.

Last year, Attorney General Keith Ellison shut down the nonprofit, alleging Amba created it as a “sham” charity to enrich herself and her family.

Remember this guy?

Abshir Omar was a former key aide to Bernie Sanders’ Iowa presidential campaign before he became a Feeding Our Future consultant. He was also deputy director of a nonprofit called Tasho, the third largest Feeding Our Future site whose leaders have not been charged. Tasho ran six food sites sponsored by Feeding Our Future, claiming to distribute 4,000 meals per day. It was reimbursed $2.7 million according to state records.

The Star Tribune notes Omar’s central role in that audio recording of Keith Ellison meeting with Feeding Our Future figures back in December 2021. I visited Omar’s Tasho offices back in May 2023:

And finally:

The state’s third biggest meals program provider at the time was Youth Leadership Academy in Minneapolis, also known as Gar Gaar Family Services, which was created during the pandemic to feed the Somali community. The nonprofit was reimbursed $21 million for sites that reported serving over 7 million meals in three months.

No charges have been filed against Gar Gaar, and the company was dissolved by court order in December 2024.

When asked if there would be more indictments, acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson replied, “Almost certainly.”