A former Burnsville charter school leader allegedly diverted nearly $300,000 of the school’s money to himself and two other former school leaders, according to an investigation by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
The Attorney General’s Office alleges that Abdiaziz Farah, the founder of Gateway STEM Academy, improperly sent close to $300,000 to businesses controlled by himself, Mahad Ibrahim, and Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff. Many of these same businesses are connected to the Feeding Our Future fraud case charged by the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office, and allegedly operated as shell companies to steal federal funds meant to feed underprivileged children.
The three men are charged in federal court in the Feeding Our Future case for allegedly defrauding the federal government of millions of dollars that they allegedly spent on personal purchases such as lakefront property, flashy cars, and a church in Kentucky.
The Attorney General’s Office hasn’t charged Abdiaziz, Mahad, or Mukhtar in connection with the school case. But the office entered into a court-ordered settlement with Gateway STEM Academy, mandating reforms over how the charter school oversees its money.
The alleged transactions violate state statutes surrounding fiduciary duties, conflicts of interest, and the Minnesota Supervision of Charitable Trusts and Trustees Act, according to the attorney general’s investigation.
Attorneys for Abdiziz, Mahad, and Mukthar did not immediately return messages from Sahan Journal Friday afternoon, the same day Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the investigation. Mahad and Mukhtar served as board members for the charter school.
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“Nonprofit charter schools must use their resources to further their educational mission, not to benefit insiders,” Ellison said in a prepared statement. “The clear self-dealing by Gateway’s former executive director and some members of its board is extremely disappointing, as are the governance failures that allowed the misuse of funds to happen.
Ellison also credited the school’s current leaders for taking action to prevent future fraud.
“I am encouraged that Gateway’s new leadership cooperated with our Office’s investigation, put controls in place to protect the school and its charitable mission going forward, and agreed to additional measures proposed by my office to help ensure a strong fresh start for the school,” he said.
The school’s principal and board of directors did not immediately return a voicemail and emails from Sahan Journal Friday afternoon seeking comment.
Gateway STEM Academy specializes in science and technology learning, and serves mostly East African students. The school opened in 2018. Abdiaziz served as the school’s director until February 2022, when he was placed on leave after his name surfaced in the Feeding Our Future case.
Mahad and Mukthar were similarly removed from the Gateway STEM board of directors when their names also surfaced in the food-aid fraud case.
According to the attorney general’s investigation, Abdiaziz misused the charter school’s money between 2018 and 2021, violating his fiduciary duties as head of the charter school. This included Gateway sending more than $173,600 in 2021 to Mind Foundry Learning Inc., a business run by Mahad, “ostensibly for after-school services to students,” according to the investigation.
The investigation alleges that Gateway sent $117,255 to A&E Logistics, a transportation company owned by Mukhtar when he was serving as Gateway’s board president from July 2021 to July 2022.
Gateway also allegedly paid nearly $430 to Empire Cuisine & Market, which Farah co-owned, for meals at parent-teacher conferences in June 2020.
During the investigation, Gateway couldn’t produce evidence that its board approved all of these “self-dealing transactions,” according to the investigation. They also violated the charter school’s conflict-of-interest policy.
Additionally, the investigation notes that the charter school sent money to other defendants in the Feeding Our Future case. This includes more than $12,000 sent to Xogmaal Production Corporation, a media company owned by Mohamed Noor, who is publicly known as Deeq Darajo, and close to $21,900 to Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin for student recruitment services.
Gateway STEM also failed to register as a nonprofit and file annual reports with the Attorney General’s Office, according to the attorney general.
The investigation lists 13 specific steps the charter school has agreed to make to avoid future fraud in its transactions. These include retaining auditors; working with its authorizer, Pillsbury United Communities, to investigate the charter school’s past misuse; reviewing its bylaws, policies, and procedures; and retaining and working regularly with financial auditors. The school must also craft policies to address conflict-of-interest, whistleblowers, and document retention.
Attorney general spokesperson Brian Evans would not say whether the office is planning to file criminal charges against Abdiaziz, Mahad, and Mukhtar, or whether it would refer the case to another prosecuting agency to consider charges. But he didn’t leave out such a possibility.
“In every case where we investigate misuse of funds, we always consider whether criminal referrals are appropriate,” he said.
The criminal cases against Abdiaziz, Mahad, and Mukhtar in federal court in the Feeding Our Future case are pending.
