A flurry of Feeding Our Future guilty pleas hit the Minneapolis federal court docket this week, days before the former executive director of the nonprofit at the center of the $250 million food aid scheme was set to begin trial.
These included two defendants who were set to stand trial next to Aimee Bock and Salim Said, the former co-owner of Safari Restaurant, as well as four others who would have been tried in different trials.
Also among those who pleaded guilty are a prominent Somali community media journalist and a respected leader in the local Oromo community. It brings the total number of guilty pleas Feeding Our Future to 30 defendants, along with the five additional people who were convicted following a lengthy trial last spring. A total of 70 people have been charged in the case. Two have been acquitted.
Two of the guilty pleas offer details into how people with existing community organizations were recruited to participate in the scheme.
Mohamed Muse Noor, better known as “Deeq Darajo” from his YouTube videos, and Mekfira Hussein, who ran the nonprofit Shamsia Hopes, say in their plea agreements that a Feeding Our Future employee invited them to enroll their organizations in the federal child nutrition programs.
They did this by applying with Feeding Our Future, which existed as a go-between to access the federal dollars and distribute them to the nonprofits, all while taking a cut of the proceeds.
Both Mekfira Hussein, 40, and Deeq Darajo, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The Feeding Our Future employee who recruited them was Abdikerm Eidleh, who is a defendant in the case and is currently an international fugitive. He was in Somalia when he was charged in fall 2022 and remains outside the U.S.
Deeq Darajo enrolled Xogmaal Media, which he had been using for his online news videos, with Feeding Our Future in late 2020. Then, Abdikerm Eidleh directed Deeq Darajo to fill out forms that he was feeding meals to 1,000 children a day, seven days a week, for reimbursement to the federal government.
Deeq Darajo used the address of his media company as the location where these meals were supposedly being provided — a shared broadcast studio located in the basement of a building on Park Avenue in south Minneapolis.
Shortly after enrolling Xogmaal Media in the food program, an unnamed employee with Feeding Our Future expressed concern to Bock about the matter.
“We took a lot of organization [sic] that don’t work with children or are advocate, [sic] I am just realizing that now,” the employee wrote to Bock in an email, according to the indictment against Deeq Darajo. “For example xogmaal is a TV show program. They have no interest with children. These are the things we need to clean up.”
But Xogmaal’s participation continued, and by spring 2021, Deeq Darajo increased his numbers, claiming the site was feeding 1,500 children a day.
During his plea hearing this week, the soft-spoken Deej Darajo answered yes to several questions detailing his participation in the scheme from Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Jacobs. He and his attorney Jason Steck declined to comment to Sahan Journal following the hearing.
Steck previously told Sahan Journal that Deeq Darajo was “scammed” by Abdikerm Eidleh.
In court, Deeq Darajo admitted to obtaining $1.3 million in federal funds, but said he transferred almost all of it to Abdikerm Eidleh, under the Feeding Our Future employee’s direction. Deeq Darajo ultimately kept just $52,000 for himself, according to his plea deal, and agreed to pay it in restitution to the federal government. He also agreed to sentencing guidelines of roughly two years in prison, give or take a few months.
Mekfira Hussein’s plea agreement similarly notes that Abdikerm Eidleh recruited her to enroll her nonprofit Shamsia Hopes in the food program through Feeding Our Future in late 2020. Abdikerm Eidleh also instructed Mekfira Hussein’s husband to enroll his company, Oromia Feeds, as a food vendor in the federal food program.
Then, Abdikerm Eidleh instructed both Mekfira Hussein and her husband to pay kickbacks to both him and Bock in exchange for enrollment in the federal food program, according to the plea agreement.
Mekfira Hussein and her husband then submitted grossly inflated meal counts in late 2020 and throughout 2021, ultimately funneling close to $9 million through their organizations. Mekfira Hussein’s plea deal admits to spending some of this money on three new cars, including a Porsche and a Tesla, as well as paying off her home mortgage. She has agreed to surrender the cars and homes to the government and pay restitution, as well as sentencing guidelines of four to five years in prison.
During the time the Feeding Our Future investigation became public, and several months before she was charged, Mekfira Hussein defended her organization’s work as legitimate and criticized those who had taken advantage of the federal child nutrition programs.
“It’s discrediting people who are actually doing their job. That is not okay,” Mekfira told Sahan Journal in January 2022. “People will steal from banks, but why would you steal from children?”
She also invited any federal scrutiny into her organization.
“I am next door to the FBI headquarters,” she said, referring to Shamsia Hopes’ Brooklyn Center location. “They [FBI] can always stop by and see what we’re doing. It’s not like we’re hiding.”
Also entering pleas this week were Sharmake and Ayan Jama, who each pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Both helped run Brava Restaurant, which they enrolled in the federal food program through Feeding Our Future. They admitted to inflating meals and ultimately obtained $5.3 million in federal money.
Both agreed to sentencing recommendations of four to five years in prison.
Restaurant owner Abdulkadir Salah and former Minneapolis policy aide Abdi Salah also pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors say the fraud started with the Minnesota Department of Education distributing federal money to Feeding Our Future. The organizations distributed the money to food venders and sites that were supposed to feed children meals during the pandemic.
But prosecutors say some organizations reported serving more meals that they did in order to receive more federal money. Some never served any meals at all.
