Two defendants in the Feeding Our Future fraud case pleaded guilty Tuesday, less than a week before they were slated to stand trial for their crimes.
Abdulkadir Salah and Abdi Salah, who are brothers, pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud. Abdulkadir Salah admitted to a higher amount of culpability in the scheme, and agreed to a heftier recommended prison sentence.
Abdulkadir Salah was originally charged with 12 crimes for stealing federal money earmarked to feed underprivileged children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Abdi Salah was originally charged with five crimes. Prosecutors agreed to drop all but the wire fraud count for each.
Abdulkadir Salah was the former co-owner of Safari Restaurant, which is at the center of the upcoming trial. The former Minneapolis-based restaurant allegedly received $16 million in fraudulent money. Abdi Salah is a former senior aide to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Both were scheduled to be tried next week alongside defendants Salim Said, who formerly co-owned Safari Restaurant, and Aimee Bock, the former executive director of Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit organization at the center of the $250 million fraud.
Abdulkadir Salah’s guilty plea involves an email he sent to Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit that sponsored hundreds of food sites and accessed and distributed the federal food-aid dollars. The email requested reimbursement for $4.2 million worth of meals.
Abdulkadir Salah agreed to a recommended prison sentence of between nine and 11-and-a-half years, and agreed to forfeit $5.5 million. He also agreed to forfeit his interest in two homes in Minneapolis and one home in Ohio.
Abdi Salah agreed to a recommended sentence of roughly two years, give or take a few months.
Abdi Salah’s wire fraud plea involved receiving an email that claimed federal reimbursement for meals from a food site in Willmar, Minnesota. He admitted in court to pocketing more than $1 million, and agreed to give it up for restitution in addition to interest he has in a restaurant property in Brooklyn Park and a residential building in south Minneapolis.
Appearing in court in a dark grey suit Tuesday afternoon, Abdi Salah answered yes to several questions from Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson.
“How are you feeling today?” U.S. Magistrate Judge David Schultz asked Abdi Salah at the beginning of the hearing.
“I feel good,” he responded.
“And you can think clearly today?” Schultz asked.
“I hope so, yes,” he responded, as he and the judge exchanged a laugh.
After Abdi Salah entered his guilty plea, his attorney, Brian Toder, stressed that his client was a small player in the fraud.
“His role in the case was minimal,” Toder told reporters tersely after the hearing.
Abdi Salah worked for nearly a decade in Minneapolis city hall, first as an aide to then-City Council Member Abdi Warsame, and then to Mayor Jacob Frey. Frey’s office fired Abdi Salah in 2022 when his connection to the case became public.
The brothers’ guilty pleas now leave just Bock and Salim Said as defendants in next week’s trial, which was originally scheduled to last four weeks.
The brothers, Bock and Salim Said are accused of defrauding the government of $47 million.
Prosecutors said the fraud started with the Minnesota Department of Education distributing federal money to Feeding Our Future and Partners in Quality Care. The two 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.
Seventy defendants have been charged in the case; more than two dozen have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial last year.
