Another whirlwind year in Minnesota local news is coming to an end.
The tragic gun violence that led to the fatal shooting of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and two children at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis dominated local and national headlines in 2025.
Apart from these horrific events, Sahan Journal covered one of the most anticipated fraud trials in Minnesota history. We also followed through on coverage of a troubled suburban development marketed toward East African homebuyers, and the end of federal reform for Minneapolis police.
We broke news about a state fraud investigation into a local company that purports to help clients obtain U.S. tourist visas for relatives living abroad.
Sahan also reported extensively on federal immigration detainees, and the challenges facing many who are sitting in prolonged detention.
Here are some of the top local news stories of 2025:
1. The trial of Aimee Bock (and Salim Said)
The most anticipated trial in the Feeding Our Future saga came early in the year when Aimee Bock, Feeding Our Future’s former CEO, finally had her day in court. The defunct nonprofit was at the center of an estimated $300-$400 million fraud scandal during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Testimony in Bock’s trial went on for more than five weeks, and came with plenty of dramatic moments. (Safari Restaurant co-owner Salim Said was also tried alongside Bock.) Among them were tearful testimonies from participants in the fraud, including one Somali woman who claimed that Bock “destroyed the community.”
There were also moments that made jurors laugh, like when two men Aimee Bock had listed as Feeding Our Future board members testified that they had no idea they were on the board.
Bock also took the stand, facing off against lead prosecutor Joe Thompson. Bock testified that she tried to prevent fraud and was duped by people below her.
“I even told the [FBI] agents at my house that I’d do anything to help catch people committing fraud,” Bock said.
“Well, you did a heck of a job of it, Ms. Bock,” Thompson said.
Jurors ultimately found both Bock and Salim Said guilty on all counts.
2. Woodbury woman under investigation for allegedly duping local Mexican families over tourist visas
Sahan Journal conducted a monthslong investigation into alleged consumer fraud involving a Bloomington company that helps people obtain U.S. tourist visas for family members living abroad.
Five Minnesota women shared stories with Sahan Journal about how they paid Nueva Vision Latinoamerica as much as $2,700 for tourist visas and waited as long as eight years only to never receive them. The visas alone cost roughly $180 and should only take about a year to obtain.
The vast majority of Nueva Vision Latinoamerica’s clients are undocumented immigrants from Mexico, according to a former business associate of the company.
The women reported their concerns to the police early in the year, and their allegations made it up to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, which opened a fraud investigation.
Christian Palacios, the owner of Nueva Vision Latinoamerica, defended her business practices, saying that she charges extra for airplane tickets for her clients and coaches them on how to conduct their interviews with the U.S. State Department.
“I have nothing to hide,” Palacios said.
As of this writing, the attorney general’s investigation remains ongoing.
3. Somali homebuyers’ dreams dashed by Nolosha Development’s failed promises, missing deposits
Sahan Journal started reporting on the troubled Nolosha Development in 2024, but big news about the project continued into 2025.
In the early part of the year, Sahan profiled a family who paid $50,000 in deposits for two homes in a housing development geared toward Muslim East African immigrants. Nearly three years after their investment, the family became frustrated when they found out that Nolosha’s owners had made no progress toward breaking ground and didn’t even own the Lakeville land they planned to build on.
What’s more, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit in the fall of 2024 against Nolosha alleging consumer fraud. The family asked for a refund and got the runaround.
“All we have is bounced checks,” said Muhammed Mohamud, whose family had put deposits on homes in the development. “We trusted [Nolosha CEO Abdiwali Abdullahi] because he grew up here, and he’s very educated, very articulate — but very dishonest.”
Nolosha spent the majority of 2025 without a lawyer to defend itself in the lawsuit. Abdiwali Abdullahi also failed to cooperate with court orders to hand over internal documents to the attorney general.
In the summer, a state judge ordered default judgement against Nolosha, effectively ending the lawsuit and ruling in favor of the attorney general. As of this writing, the court is still determining how much money Nolosha will be ordered to refund its 160-plus clients. The attorney general’s office wants Nolosha to pay back $4.5 million.
4. ‘Just deport me’: ICE detainees face financial hurdles and indefinite detention in Minnesota jails
President Donald Trump’s tough approach on immigration is leaving immigration detainees in jails for prolonged periods.
That’s because deporting someone is easier to do on paper than in reality. Over the summer, Sahan Journal reported on several U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees who were tired of being detained for months — even years — and wanted out.
“I don’t want to fight my case,” said Nadeem Khalid, a detainee who had been in Sherburne County Jail since the summer of 2024. “I don’t want to argue with anybody. Just deport me.”
Deporting Khalid proved hard because he is originally from Pakistan. In fact, he even boarded a plane early in the year and made it all the way to the United Arab Emirates, only to be turned around and sent back to the Sherburne County jail because India had attacked Pakistan that day.
Another detainee, Kratos Fernando, was detained over an old marijuana possession conviction. He was held in custody even after successfully convincing a judge in court that he should be released permanently, because he had to complete a medical test but ICE couldn’t find the time to transfer him to a health clinic to receive the test.
Fernando was eventually released in August. Khalid, as of this writing, is still detained at the Sherburne County jail.
5. DOJ moves to end consent decree with Minneapolis police days before anniversary of George Floyd’s murder
Four months after the U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Minneapolis agreed on a consent decree to reform the Minneapolis Police Department, the Trump administration abandoned ship.
The move effectively ended a process that began in 2021 when the DOJ began a pattern or practice investigation into systemic wrongdoing by Minneapolis police. The investigation was sparked by George Floyd’s murder in 2020, and began a day after jurors convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in his murder.
The DOJ released its findings in the summer of 2023, concluding that Minneapolis police had engaged in multiple violations of the public’s constitutional rights. These findings included unlawful use of excessive force, racial discrimination during traffic stops, discrimination against people involved in protests and discrimination against people with behavioral health disabilities.
The Trump administration withdrew from the consent decree and others like it across the nation. It also ended ongoing pattern or practice investigations.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon at the time criticized such consent decrees as “factually unjustified” and called them “[former President Joe] Biden’s failed experiment” that “handcuff local leaders and police departments.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pledged at the time to follow through with the federal reforms anyway. Some Minneapolis City Council members have since pushed for putting the DOJ reforms in writing, which Frey has said he supports.
