One-quarter of all defendants charged in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud case involving have now pleaded guilty to their role in what authorities have called the largest pandemic-era fraud in the country.
Filsan Hassan pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Fifteen out of 60 defendants have pleaded guilty to stealing federal funds earmarked to feed underprivileged children and using them to buy real estate and cars, among other items.
Filsan, 29, operated Youth for Higher Educational Achievement, which prosecutors charge acted as a shell company to perpetuate fraud. According to charging documents, Filsan registered two food sites with the organization, which were located at a Brooklyn Park apartment and a New Hope townhouse.
Dressed in a beige headdress, a dark blue overcoat, and wide frame glasses, Filsan spoke firmly and tersely when making her guilty plea in court. She and her attorney, Catherine Turner, declined to comment to Sahan Journal after the hearing. She was also joined by two women who attended the hearing in support.
Filsan and the federal government agreed to a sentence of about three to just under three-and-a-half years in prison, a fine between $15,000 and $150,000, and $361,000 in restitution. U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Brasel, who oversaw the plea hearing, will make a final determination on Filsan’s sentencing at a later date.
Between April and December 2021, Youth for Higher Educational Achievement claimed to serve more than 1 million meals to underprivileged children and received more than $2.5 million in federal food-aid dollars through the nonprofit, Feeding Our Future. At its peak, Youth for Higher Educational Achievement claimed to serve more than 4,300 meals a day, seven days a week.
Filsan admitted in court to actually serving only a fraction of these meals.
Filsan, according to charges, personally received $185,000 of this money. She admitted to spending $114,000 of food-aid money on a Brooklyn Park townhome with co-defendant Qamar Hassan, who has pleaded guilty in the case.
The alleged fraud involved sponsor organizations like Feeding Our Future receiving federal funds through the Minnesota Department of Education. The sponsor organizations then distributed those funds to food vendors and food sites like Youth for Higher Educational Achievement, which were supposed to provide ready-to-eat meals to local children.
Several organizations in the money chain reported serving thousands more meals than they actually did, or simply never served any at all in order to receive more federal reimbursement dollars, according to prosecutors. Those funds were then passed through various shell companies before allegedly being pocketed by the perpetrators.
Filsan also admitted to using an online name generator to submit fake names for non-existent children that her organization reported serving.
Filsan used S&S Catering as its food vendor, which she gave more than $1.6 million to. Three people associated with S&S Catering previously pleaded guilty to committing fraud.
While answering questions from Brasel about her immigrant status, Filsan stated that she is not a U.S. citizen. Brasel then asked Filsan if she was aware that pleading guilty could cause an immigration court to move to deport her from the United States.
“Yes, your honor,” Filsan replied.
Three trials in the case could go to trial in 2024. One trial is scheduled for one defendant in January. A judge is considering whether two other cases with a total of 20 defendants should also go to trial next year.
The first charges in the case were filed in September 2022, and a second round of charges were filed in March 2023. U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger has previously stated that his office plans to charge more defendants in the case, but has declined to provide details about the total number and the timeframe his office is working with.
