Witnesses in Feeding Our Future trial saw few to no meals served to needy children

Several witnesses testified Monday that they saw few to no meals being served to children at a public park and other locations where several defendants on trial reported providing tens of thousands of meals.

The testimony was the first time eyewitnesses in court corroborated prosecutors’ allegations that children were not being fed. The revelations were made as testimony resumed in the first trial in the Feeding Our Future fraud case, where a total of 70 suspects were charged for allegedly stealing $250 million in federal money designated to feed needy children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seven defendants are being jointly tried for allegedly stealing $40 million by inflating the number of children they fed—or by reporting to feed children when they served none at all. The suspects allegedly shuffled the money through shell companies and used it to buy flashy cars, lavish vacations, and luxury real estate, among other personal purchases.

Monday’s witnesses included a Shakopee Public Schools official, the owner of a Holiday gas station in Apple Valley, and two former managers at The Landing, a public park in Shakopee.

Empire Cuisine and Market, a Shakopee-based restaurant, claimed to prepare nearly 100,000 meals that were served to underprivileged children at The Landing between July and December of 2020.

Empire Cuisine’s co-owners, Abdiziz Farah and Mohamed Jama Ismail, and five others are being tried for a total of 41 criminal charges, including bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering.

William Walker, a former cultural resource manager for the Three Rivers Park District, which runs The Landing, testified about his observations of activity at the park.

“Did you see that many meals being distributed at The Landing?” U.S. Assistant Attorney Chelsea Walcker asked Walker.

“I didn’t see any meals being distributed at The Landing,” Walker said.

Walcker walked him through the monthly meal claims some of the defendants submitted; the documents reported the number of meals they said they served at the park.

“If that many meals were served at The Landing, is that something you would have been aware of?” she asked Walker again and again as she went through each of the six monthly meals claims individually.

Yes, Walker replied.

Walcker asked if children were being fed at the park by the defendants: “Did it happen?”

No, Walker replied.

Walcker later repeated the same line of questioning with John Ruhland, a former maintenance worker at The Landing.

Ruhland testified that he worked at the park on weekdays through the pandemic, and that he never saw free meals distributed to children there. At one point, Walcker asked Ruhland about his own family, and he replied that he had three young daughters.

“Would you have liked to bring home free meals for your children during the pandemic?” Walcker asked.

“Yes,” he responded.

In cross examination, defense attorneys emphasized that neither Walker nor Ruhland were aware of food that was distributed outside of The Landing.

“You don’t know one way or another whether food was distributed outside of park boundaries?” asked Ian Birrell, an attorney for Abdiaziz.

“Are you asking if I knew if there was food being distributed somewhere else?” Walker asked.

Yes, Birrell replied.

“No,” Walker said.

Defense attorneys also established that the witnesses who testified Monday weren’t approached by the FBI until last month. The FBI began its investigation in early 2021 after receiving a tip that February from someone who worked at Partners in Quality Care, and after being alerted that April by the Minnesota Department of Education about possible fraud.

The Minnesota Department of Education distributed money from the federal Child Nutrition Program to sponsor organizations like Feeding Our Future and Partners in Quality Care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sponsor organizations then dispersed those funds to food vendors and food sites, 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 meals at all—in order to receive more federal money, according to prosecutors. Those funds were then allegedly passed through various shell companies before being pocketed by the perpetrators, who used the money to buy cars, property, and other items.

‘I didn’t see many people’

Bill Menozzi, the chief financial officer for Shakopee Public Schools, testified Monday that the school district continued to feed children throughout the pandemic, including after schools closed. Menozzi testified that the district dropped meals off at three sites that the defendants reported providing meals over the same time period. Menozzi said he was not aware of other organizations serving meals at the sites—which all belonged to Mind Foundry, the nonprofit started by a defendant who is not a part of the trial.

For the first seven months of the pandemic, Menozzi testified, the school district served meals for pick up at Shakopee High School and dropped off meals daily at 10 low-income areas across the city, including mobile home parks and townhomes.

Under questioning from the prosecution, Menozzi said that the amount of meals the district served and delivered always varied, which contrasted with evidence prosecutors previously submitted at trial showing that the defendants claimed to serve an identical number of meals for almost every day of each month.

“If we had rain, participation would go down,” Menozzi said. “And Friday was always a large day because we weren’t open Saturday and Sunday.”

The school district has 7,800 students in the district, he testified, with just more than half of them students of color, including a large Somali population. (Many of the defendants in the case are Somali.) The district serves options for people with dietary restrictions due to religion and other reasons, he said, and continued that practice during the pandemic.

Menozzi testified that he was present during several meal deliveries at three sites— Clifton Townhomes, Sarazin Flats, and Bonnevista Mobile Home Park—that the defendants also claimed to serve food at. The school district usually served a total of about 50 people a day at Clifton Townhomes and Sarazin Flats, and about 40 people a day at Bonnevista Mobile Home Park, he said. The defendants reported serving thousands of meals a day at the three sites combined.

Walcker, one of the prosecutors, noted at one point that the defendants reported serving 93,000 meals in March 2021 at Clifton Townhomes, and that 1,000 people reportedly showed up there every day from March through June of that year.

“I don’t believe that would have been possible,” Menozzi said.

“Why not?” Walcker asked.

“The logistics of getting that number of meals to that small of a location,” Menozzi said.

The school district, he said, was serving about 15 to 25 people at the townhomes each day during the same time period, Menozzi said.

Menozzi also testified that Bonnevista Mobile Home Park is located across the street from his office, and that he never saw food being distributed there from any organization besides the school district. The defendants reported serving hundreds of meals every day at the mobile home park.

During cross examination, Menozzi testified that the district served breakfast and lunch. Defense lawyers emphasized that their clients served afternoon snacks and dinner. Menozzi also said that the district provided meals to roughly 5,000 students a day before the pandemic, which dropped to around 600 to 1,200 students a day during the pandemic.

“Then we would have between 3,800 and 4,400 who still need to eat, correct?” asked Frederick Goetz, who is representing Mukhtar Shariff.

“Yes,” Menozzi replied, “and I know many of our students opted to eat at home.”

“You would not have information on where they got their food from, correct?” Goetz asked.

“No, I would not,” Menozzi replied.

Two witnesses testified Monday that they saw some food being distributed at sites, but not much. Oldemar Lopez, a manager at a temp agency in a Minneapolis strip mall, testified that he occasionally saw five or six families pick up food a few times a week at a site located in the building that houses his agency. The defendants claimed to serve more than 630,000 meals at the location during all of 2021.

“Did you ever see big groups of people there?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Jacobs.

“I didn’t,” Lopez responded.

Jacobs asked if it was at all possible that the food site served as many meals as it claimed in 2021.

“No,” Lopez said. “I didn’t see many people there.”

Damaris Graffunder, who owns and operates a Holiday gas station in Apple Valley, testified that she only saw a couple of people collect food at a site next to the gas station that she owns and rented out. She said that a daycare, Acacia Montessori, operated in the space but was closed during the pandemic.

Mind Foundry claimed to serve more than 445,000 meals at the daycare during 2021. Graffunder, however, said she only saw a handful of people picking up food there a total of five or six times.

Defense attorney Patrick Cotter, who is representing Mohamed Jama Ismail, attempted to submit a video that he said showed a large line of people snaking around the building as they waited to pick up food at the daycare. Prosecutors objected, stating that they didn’t know when the video was recorded.

Attorneys discussed the matter off the record in a sidebar with U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel, who did not allow the video to be shown to the jury. Brasel did not explain her reasoning in open court.

Testimony resumes Tuesday morning. The trial began April 22 and is expected to last six to eight weeks.

Who’s on trial?

The defendants on trial are facing a total of 41 charges, including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering. They mostly worked for businesses that used Partners in Quality Care as a sponsor.

The defendants are:

• Abdiaziz Farah co-owned Empire Cuisine and Market. Federal prosecutors allege that the Shakopee-based deli and grocery store posed as a meals provider for several food sites, and defrauded the government out of $28 million. Abdiaziz allegedly pocketed more than $8 million for himself. He is also charged with lying on an application to renew his passport after federal agents seized his passport as part of their investigation.

• Mohamed Jama Ismail co-owned Empire Cuisine and Market. Mohamed is Abdiziz’s uncle. He is also owner of MZ Market LLC, which prosecutors allege was a shell company used to launder the stolen money. Mohamed allegedly pocketed $2.2 million. He previously pleaded guilty to passport fraud.

• Abdimajid Nur allegedly created a shell company, Nur Consulting, and laundered stolen money from Empire Cuisine and ThinkTechAct, other alleged shell companies. Abdimajid, who was 21 at the time of his indictment, allegedly pocketed $900,000.

• Hayat Nur allegedly submitted fake meal counts and invoices served at food sites. Court documents identify Hayat as Abdimajid’s sister. Hayat allegedly pocketed $30,000.

• Said Farah co-owned Bushra Wholesalers, which allegedly laundered money by claiming to be a food vendor that provided meals to food sites that then reportedly served children. Court documents identify Said as Abdiaziz’s brother. Said allegedly pocketed more than $1 million.

• Abdiwahab Aftin co-owned Bushra Wholesalers, and allegedly pocketed $435,000.

• Mukhtar Shariff served as CEO of Afrique Hospitality Group, and allegedly used the company to launder stolen money. He allegedly pocketed more than $1.3 million.

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