Jamal Osman, Omar Fateh on video bragging about their help for Feeding Our Future
The ever-alert Lou Raguse of KARE-11 TV is out with a story on how Minneapolis city council member Jamal Osman (Ward 6) went to bat on behalf of Feeding Our Future during the time the nonprofit was allegedly stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the state Department of Education (MDE). Osman wasn’t the only one.
In his report, Raguse shows excerpts of a public appearance by Osman dating from June 2021. The full video of the event can be seen, below:
The video is hosted on Youtube by Xogmaal Media. Xogmaal is operated by Mohamed Noor, Defendant No. 49 in the Feeding Our Future case. Within days of the scandal breaking in January 2022, the video vanished.
Noor eventually pled guilty earlier this year, becoming the 33rd conviction, overall, in the free-food scandal. After his guilty plea, public access to the video was restored on the Xogmaal site. Xogmaal was located in this multi-tenant office building in south Minneapolis.
The 56-minute video above carries a publication date of June 26, 2021, and shows parts of a community celebration of Feeding Our Future’s then-most-recent court victory over MDE. The state agency had been trying to cut off funds to Feeding, but while fighting a lawsuit in state court, threw in the towel and resumed paying Feeding’s invoices.
Jamal Osman’s appearance begins at the 11:42 mark of the video. Council-member Osman describes his lobbying work on behalf of Feeding Our Future with MDE.
Raguse notes the timing of Osman’s remarks:
Osman did not share with the audience during that June 2021 celebration that his wife, Ilo Amba, was several months into running an alleged meal site of her own. Public records show Amba’s nonprofit Urban Advantage Services received $460,000 in reimbursements between Feb. and Nov. 2021, claiming to serve meals out of a small downtown office. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office later shut it down, calling it a “fraudulent shell company.”
That connection, between Osman and the program he is advocating for, would seem to skate very close to the concept of “conflict of interest.”
At the 11: 55 mark, Osman discusses his efforts to lobby MDE. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is mentioned at 12:37. At 12:40, he accuses MDE of “targeting” immigrant and minority communities. He uses the word “racist” at 12:55.
A recurring theme throughout the hour-long video is the denunciation of not just MDE but also the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS). Daycare and group home businesses are mentioned frequently.
State Senator Omar Fateh (DFL-62, Minneapolis) appears at the 34:00-minute mark.
At 35:15, Fateh speaks of lobbying Gov. Tim Walz on behalf of Feeding Our Future. Fateh reports (35:45) being told by the Governor’s office at the time that there was “zero evidence of fraud” in the food program. Tim Walz himself would later contradict this claim in his public appearances, saying that they were aware of program fraud as early as 2020.
On two occasions, Fateh describes MDE’s conduct as “immoral.”
Sen. Fateh is the largest single recipient of campaign donations from figures involved in the scandal. Among the donors to Fateh’s campaign were Salim Said, Defendant No. 3 in the fraud case and currently on trial, and Abdinasir Abshir, Defendant No. 10 and recently jailed on suspicions of witness tampering. Mayor Frey also received donations from those same two individuals, along with others, later indicted in the case.
Sen. Fateh gives a shout-out to local Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at 35:59. Rep. Omar herself was not in attendance but had a staffer in the room. Rep. Omar’s staffer, Ali Isse, delivers his remarks beginning at 38:18 and endorses the work of the Feeding Our Future nonprofit.
It cannot be confirmed, but it appears that future Feeding Our Future Defendants Nos. 47 and 63 either appear or are mentioned at the 32:39 and 34:49 marks, respectively.
Aimee Bock–Feeding Our Future CEO, Defendant No. 1 in the fraud case, and currently on trial alongside Said–begins her remarks at the 18:40 mark. She mentions (18:50) a dispute with MDE over $20 million in withheld payments. She mentions unapproved applications at 19:55. At 20:21, Bock accuses MDE of trying “to steal this money from the community.”
Bock and other speakers at the June 2021 event promoted an upcoming protest to be held at MDE headquarters. The protest would feature Mekfira Hussein, future Defendant No. 48, who would later plead guilty and be convicted (No. 35) in the fraud case.
In another political connection, the June 2021 MDE protest also featured a Feeding Our Future consultant who was previously a staffer for Democratic Presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
Back to the video. The climax of the event (49:37) was a musical tribute to the woman of the hour, Aimee Bock:
Bock was then presented (54:40) with an award for her “outstanding leadership”:
Only in America.