In free lunch fraud, civil forfeiture sought

[Valin]

6th guilty plea entered in Feeding Our Future case

Alishire and his two business partners took $2.4 million out of the free-food programs, under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, according to his guilty plea.
Bill Glahn
January 27, 2023

(Center of the American Experiment) — For Liban Alishire, the JigJiga is truly up.

This week, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota sent out a press release announcing the latest guilty plea in the Feeding Our Future free-food scandal. Liban Yasin Alishire, defendant No. 36 (of 50) in the case, became the sixth person to plead guilty. Alishire made a brief appearance in federal court Tuesday afternoon.

Alishire was the lead defendant in the indictment that covered activity centered around the JigJiga Business Center located on East Lake Street in Minneapolis.

Along with another defendant, Alishire owns an adult day care located at the same address. Unrelated to their indictment in the free-food scandal, the Department of Human Services (DHS) placed their license in “conditional status” in early 2022 and issued a correction order last month. Nonetheless, their adult day care continues to receive payments from DHS, which have totaled nearly $1.8 million over the past five years.

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[Valin]

10 more charged in Feeding Our Future case, still more to come

One of the new defendants claimed to be feeding the entire population of Pelican Rapids, every day.

Anthony Gockowski
March 14, 2023

U.S. Attorney Andy Luger announced charges against 10 additional Minnesotans in the $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal Monday, bringing the total number of defendants to 60.

One of the new defendants, Sharon Ross, was the executive director of a nonprofit called House of Refuge Twin Cities. According to an October Fox 9 report, DFL Sen. Sandy Pappas from St. Paul personally intervened to help Ross’ nonprofit receive funding through Feeding Our Future in the spring of 2021.

“She contacted the Minnesota Department of Education asking that House of Refuge, the St. Paul social services organization, be approved to receive a grant — through Feeding Our Future — to continue House of Refuge’s ongoing efforts to provide food to families and children,” a spokesperson for Pappas told the outlet at the time.

“As she was advocating for the House of Refuge food program, she had no idea about any problems with Feeding Our Future,” the spokesperson added.

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[Valin]

Judge allows Feeding Our Future fraudster to take 30-day trip to Kenya

Prosecutors opposed Alishire’s request because “there are no conditions to ensure [his] return to the United States to face sentencing."
Anthony Gockowski
October 26, 2023

A federal judge will allow one of the defendants who pleaded guilty in the $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal to travel to Kenya for 30 days despite the objections of prosecutors.

Liban Yasin Alishire, 43, pleaded guilty in January to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering while admitting that he defrauded the federal government’s Child Nutrition Programs of over $2 million under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future.

Alishire personally obtained $712,000 in fraudulent reimbursements from the government and used that money to purchase a boat, a Ford F150 pickup truck, an apartment in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Karibu Palms Resort along the Indian Ocean in Kenya, according to federal prosecutors.

Now, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy E. Brasel has partially granted Alishire’s request to travel to Kenya so he can “assist in the sale of his Kenyan properties,” according to a court document filed Wednesday.

“The sale will help with his forfeiture and restitution obligations,” Brasel noted. KARE 11 first reported on Brasel’s decision.

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[Valin]

EXCLUSIVE: Metro counties paid organizations connected to food fraud defendants

It was previously reported that roughly half of the federal Feeding Our Future defendants had additional state contracts, raising concerns among state legislators. Alpha News investigated whether this phenomenon also extended to the county level.
Luke Sprinkel
December 20, 2023

Hennepin County gave over $140,000 to organizations connected to an alleged fraudster, according to documents obtained by Alpha News.

Ayan Abukar was the executive director of Action for East African People (AFEAP) in Bloomington, Minn. This organization was a nonprofit with the goal of “promoting the grassroots advancement and cultivation of the East African (EA) community.” On the former website for AFEAP, Abukar is described as a “compassionate” person who “has worked for decades to help underserved communities in the Twin Cities.”

In 2021, Abukar won an “outstanding refugee” award from the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

However, AFEAP shut down sometime in 2022 or 2023, and Abukar was indicted in March of 2023 for her role in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, Abukar claimed to be feeding up to 5,000 children per day with federal funds she received via the Minnesota Department of Education and a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future. In total, Abukar received $5.7 million in fraudulent funds, the DOJ alleges.

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Additionally, Alpha News discovered Hennepin County signed a contract with Ebyan Adult Day Center, an LLC that was incorporated by Abukar, according to the Minnesota Reformer. She is listed as one of the center’s registered agents on a business filing with the Secretary of State’s Office, which describes the status of the business as “inactive.” In the contract, which lasted from Nov. 1, 2014 to June 30, 2019, Hennepin County paid Ebyan Adult Day Center to provide “adult day care services … for adults with developmental disability or related conditions.”

Hennepin County declined to comment apart from confirming that it paid Ebyan Adult Day Center a total of $127,696 throughout the duration of the near five-year contract.

Ramsey County

Hennepin County was not the only jurisdiction to sign a contract with a defendant in the Feeding Our Future scheme. Sharon Ross, the executive director of Evangelist Temple House of Refuge Outreach Ministries (ETHROM), signed a September 2020 contract with Ramsey County for $108,497. ETHROM operated under a variety of different names, including House of Refuge and House of Refuge Outreach Twin Cities, according to the federal indictment against Ross.

In the 2020 contract signed with Ramsey County, Ross’s organization received $108,497 to set up a computer lab. According to the contract, ETHROM received the money to “provide opportunities for Hmong and Spanish speaking residents in Ramsey County impacted by COVID-19 to have access to computers for online job search, tools, and resources.”

When reached for comment, Ramsey County said: “The contract was for a short period of time, Sept. 23, 2020 through Dec. 30, 2020. The scope of services was to set up a computer lab for Hmong and Spanish speaking residents of Ramsey County. Two site visits occurred where it was verified contract work was occurring and completed (October and December 2020). Invoices were submitted, approved, and paid per the contract terms. Monitoring was completed and we closed the contract at the end of 2020.”

In March of 2023, Ross was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for her role in the Feeding Our Future scheme..................(Snip)

[Valin]

17th defendant pleads guilty in Feeding Our Future scheme

In total, Ross fraudulently claimed to have served nearly 900,000 meals and received about $2.4 million in fraudulent Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.

Scott McClallen
January 11, 2024

(The Center Square) — A Big Lake, Minn., woman has pleaded guilty to her role in the $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally-funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Court documents say Sharon Denise Ross, 53, was the executive director of House of Refuge Twin Cities, a St. Paul-based non-profit which she enrolled in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future and “Sponsor A.”

Ross claimed House of Refuge operated distribution sites at a dozen locations throughout the Twin Cities that served food from a vendor called Brava Café, a restaurant in Minneapolis run by Hanna Marakegn. Between September 2021 through February 2022, Ross falsely claimed to be serving thousands of children each day at her House of Refuge sites.

In total, Ross fraudulently claimed to have served nearly 900,000 meals and received about $2.4 million in fraudulent Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.

Ross allegedly distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to family members and used the rest of the money to fund her lifestyle, including vacations to Florida and Las Vegas, a suite at a Minnesota Timberwolves game, and a house in Willernie, Minn.

Other alleged purchases using the scheme’s proceeds included:

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[Valin]

Feds charge 10 more in Feeding Our Future scheme

The latest round of charges brings the total number of Minnesotans charged in the case to 70.
Anthony Gockowski
February 6, 2024

Minnesota’s U.S. attorney filed charges against 10 additional defendants Monday for allegedly participating in a scheme that defrauded the federal government of money that was meant for feeding hungry kids.

The latest round of charges brings the total number of Minnesotans charged in the case to 70, 17 of whom have already pleaded guilty. One of the new defendants, Hoda Ali Abdi, was charged via a criminal information, which is used when the subject has agreed to plead guilty.

The remaining nine were charged in two separate indictments for charges such as conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and bribery.

The sprawling conspiracy has become known as the Feeding Our Future scandal, which was the name of the defunct nonprofit operated by Aimee Bock at the center of the scheme.

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[Valin]

On 2/6/2024 at 4:13 PM, Valin said:

Feds charge 10 more in Feeding Our Future scheme

The latest round of charges brings the total number of Minnesotans charged in the case to 70.
Anthony Gockowski
February 6, 2024

 

Mar 5, 2024

Bill Glahn, American Experiment Policy Fellow, gives an update on the biggest Covid fraud case in the United States - one that he has been following since the beginning. This presentation originally appeared as a webinar.

[Valin]

Feeding our fraud goes to trial

Scott Johnson

Apr. 30 2024

I went to federal court in downtown Minneapolis yesterday morning for the opening statements in tbe first Feeding Our Future fraud trial. When it comes to Covid fraud, we’re number 1. The case features a lot of “diverse” defendants without much diversity. They are almost all Somali, I am sorry to say. By the same token, I believe that one of my Somali friends helped expose the fraud and assist in the investigation.

All together, 70 defendants have been charged to date. Eighteen have pleaded guilty. One or two have agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. All the cases have been assigned to United States District Judge Nancy Brasel.

At the center of the fraud is a white woman — one Aimee Bock. She recruited a large cast of Somali immigrants to participate through her nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which sponsored most of the vendors who signed up to serve meals to kids at government expense during the Covid regime. Bock’s trial should be first, but instead we have the first group of seven Somali defendants in the current case. This case involves $40 million of the $250 million total that the government alleges to have been paid out as a result of the fraud.

KARE 11’s Lou Raguse is my favorite local reporter covering the case. Below is his report on the opening statements. The Star Tribune’s Kelly Smith has a good account here. The left-wing Minnesota Reformer has the dogged Deena Winter on the case. Her story is here. If you have any interest in the case, check out their stories.

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