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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA
Criminal No. 22-124 (NEB/TNL)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, )
)
Plaintiff, )
)
v. ) GOVERNMENT’S TRIAL BRIEF
)
ABDIAZIZ SHAFII FARAH, )
MOHAMED JAMA ISMAIL, )
MAHAD IBRAHIM, )
ABDIMAJID MOHAMED NUR, )
SAID SHAFII FARAH, )
ABDIWAHAB MAALIM AFTIN, )
MUKHTAR MOHAMED SHARIFF, and )
HAYAT MOHAMED NUR, )
)
Defendants. )
The United States of America, by and through its attorneys, Andrew M. Luger,
United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota, Joseph H. Thompson, Harry M.
Jacobs, Matthew S. Ebert, Chelsea A. Walcker, and Daniel W. Bobier, Assistant
United States Attorneys, respectfully submits the following trial brief in this matter.
I. OVERVIEW
On September 13, 2022, a grand jury returned a 43-count superseding
indictment charging eight defendants—Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama
Ismail, Mahad Ibrahim, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdiwahab
Maalim Aftin, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, and Hayat Mohamed Nur—with a number
of crimes, including: one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in violation of 18
U.S.C. §§ 371 and 1343; eleven counts of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343;
one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, in violation of 18 U.S.C.
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§§ 371 and 666; six counts of federal programs bribery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 666;
one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 1956(a) and (h); twenty-two counts of money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 1957; and one count of false statement in a passport application, in violation of 18
U.S.C. § 1542.
The indictment alleges that the defendants orchestrated and carried out a
scheme that defrauded the Federal Child Nutrition Program, a government aid
program designed to provide free meals to children in need. The defendants exploited
the Covid-19 pandemic to obtain, misappropriate, and launder tens of millions of
dollars in program funds that were intended as reimbursements for the cost of serving
meals and food to children. In all, the defendants fraudulently misappropriated more
than $40 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
II. BACKGROUND
A. The Federal Child Nutrition Program
The Federal Child Nutrition Program is a government program that ensures
children receive nutritious meals and snacks that adequately promote healthy
physical and education development. The program is run through the Food and
Nutrition Service, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture
(“USDA”). That agency administers Federal Child Nutrition Programs, which
includes the Summer Food Service Program and Child and Adult Care Food Program
(together, the “Federal Child Nutrition Program”).
The Summer Food Service Program (“SFSP”) is a federal program established
to ensure that children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in
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session. The Summer Food Service Program reimburses non-profit organizations and
other participating entities that serve free healthy meals and snacks to children and
teens in low-income areas. The Child and Adult Care Food Program (“CACFP”) is a
federal program that reimburses non-profit organizations and other participating
entities that serve healthy meals and snacks to children and adults at participating
childcare centers, daycare homes, and after-school programs.
The Federal Child Nutrition Program operates throughout the United States.
The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service administers the programs at the national
and regional levels by distributing federal funds to state governments, which provide
oversight for the Federal Child Nutrition Program. In Minnesota, the Minnesota
Department of Education (“MDE”) administers the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
The Federal Child Nutrition Program operated through sponsors, which
oversaw the sites. Sponsors, like Feeding Our Future and Partners In Nutrition, are
responsible for monitoring the operation of the programs and submitting
reimbursement claims.
Feeding Our Future and Partners In Nutrition were non-profit organizations
purportedly in the business of helping community partners participate in the Federal
Child Nutrition Program. Both were approved sponsors of the Federal Child
Nutrition Program, and prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, each operated
as a small non-profit that sponsored the participation of Minnesota daycares and
after school programs in the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
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Meals funded by the Federal Child Nutrition Program in Minnesota are served
at “sites.” Each site participating in the Federal Child Nutrition Program must be
sponsored by an organization authorized to participate in the Federal Child Nutrition
Program. Sponsors are required to submit an application to MDE for each site.
Sponsors are responsible for monitoring each of their sites and preparing
reimbursement claims for their sites.
Sponsors submit reimbursement claims to MDE on behalf of sites under their
sponsorship. The USDA provides federal reimbursement funds to MDE on a per-meal
basis. MDE provides the federal funds to the sponsoring agency, which in turn pays
the reimbursement funds to the sites under its sponsorship. The sponsoring agency
retains ten to fifteen percent of the funds as an administrative fee in exchange for
sponsoring the sites, submitting reimbursement claims, and disbursing the federal
funds.
In exchange for sponsoring the sites’ fraudulent participation in the program,
sponsors received Federal Child Nutrition Program funds as administrative fees. In
2020 and 2021, Feeding Our Future and Partners In Nutrition received tens of
millions of dollars in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds in administrative fees.
Because the amount of administrative fees the sponsors received was based on the
amount of federal funds received by sites under its sponsorship, Feeding Our Future
and Partners In Nutrition received tens of millions of dollars in administrative fees
to which they were not entitled, due to its sponsorship and facilitation of fraudulent
sites participating in the program.
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B. The Covid-19 Waivers and Fraud
The Covid-19 pandemic, including various stay-at-home orders and distance
learning, disrupted the operation of the Federal Child Nutrition Program. As a result,
the USDA issued waivers to the program requirements, allowing additional flexibility
for implementing the program and expanding the scope of the program. Following
the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting waivers, Feeding Our Future
and Partners In Nutrition sponsored an exponential number of new sites—more than
200 new Federal Child Nutrition Program sites.
Historically, the Federal Child Nutrition Program provided meals to children
involved in education-based programs or activities. During the Covid-19 pandemic,
the USDA waived several of the standard requirements for participation in the
Federal Child Nutrition Program. Among other things, the USDA allowed for-profit
restaurants to participate in the program. It also allowed for food distribution to
children outside of educational programs. At the same time, the state government’s
stay-at-home order and telework policies made it more difficult to oversee the
program. These changes left the program vulnerable to fraud and abuse.
Beginning in approximately April 2020—with the onset of the Covid-19
pandemic—Feeding Our Future and Partners In Nutrition dramatically increased
the number of sites under their sponsorship as well as the amount of Federal Child
Nutrition Program funds received by those sites.
Feeding Our Future went from receiving and disbursing approximately $3.4
million in federal funds to sites under its sponsorship in 2019 to nearly $200 million
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in 2021. Partners In Nutrition went from receiving and disbursing approximately
$5.6 million in federal funds to sites under its sponsorship in 2019 to more than $200
million in 2021. In 2021, sites under the sponsorship of Partners In Nutrition claimed
to have served more than 80 million meals to children in Minnesota.
III. THE DEFENDANTS’ SCHEME TO DEFRAUD THE FEDERAL CHILD NUTRITION
PROGRAM
A. The Defendants and Their Roles
Abdiaziz Farah and Mohamed Ismail owned and operated Empire Cuisine
& Market, a small storefront market located in a strip mall in Shakopee, Minnesota.
Shortly after forming their company in April 2020, they enrolled in the Federal Child
Nutrition Program. They opened multiple food distribution sites in and around
Shakopee under the sponsorship of Partners in Nutrition. At first, they claimed to be
serving meals to several hundred kids per day at their handful of food distribution
sites. But by 2021, they claimed, falsely, to be serving meals to thousands of kids at
a dozen or more sites around the state of Minnesota. They also claimed to be providing
food to be served at nearly 50 sites operated by their co-conspirators.
Abdiaziz Farah and Mohamed Ismail claimed—fraudulently—that their small
storefront market served millions of meals to Minnesota kids in 2020 and 2021. Based
on these fraudulent claims, Empire Cuisine & Market received more than $30 million
in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds to which they were not entitled. After
laundering the money through a series of shell companies, they and their co-
conspirators used it to purchase cars and real estate, fund their lifestyle and foreign
travel, and invest abroad.
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Mahad Ibrahim was the founder of ThinkTechAct and Mind Foundry, two
educational non-profits that purported to provide online STEM education. Mahad
Ibrahim worked with Abdiaziz Farah and other co-conspirators to open a large
number of food distribution sites in the name of his non-profit. Between
ThinkTechAct and Mind Foundry, the defendants created more than two dozen
Federal Child Nutrition Program sites through Minnesota, including in Minneapolis,
St. Paul, Bloomington, Burnsville, Faribault, Owatonna, Shakopee, Circle Pines, and
Willmar. These sites operated under the sponsorship of both Feeding Our Future and
Partners In Nutrition.
At times, ThinkTechAct and Mind Foundry claimed to serve meals to more
than 25,000 children a day at their various sites. In total, from February 2021
through January 2022, ThinkTechAct received more than $18 million in federal funds
from Partners In Nutrition and another $3.7 million from Feeding Our Future. Most
of this money flowed through ThinkTechAct to Empire Cuisine & Market, from which
Mahad Ibrahim’s non-profits claimed to be purchasing food for distribution at their
sites.
Said Farah and Abdiwahab Aftin created Bushra Wholesalers, ostensibly a
food distribution company that provided food to be served at their co-conspirators’
sites. Said Farah and Abdiwahab Aftin created Bushra Wholesalers in February
2021—in the midst of the fraud scheme—and immediately began using the company
to receive and launder fraudulently obtained Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
In all, Bushra Wholesalers received more than $4.5 million in Federal Child Nutrition
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Program funds from Empire Cuisine & Market, ThinkTechAct, and other entities
involved in the scheme. Said Farah and Abdiwahab Aftin only spent a small fraction
of this money on food. The rest of the money was distributed to co-conspirators via
shell companies and other entities used to receive and launder fraud proceeds.
Abdiwahab Aftin also sent more than $600,000 of this money overseas, including to
purchase real estate in Nairobi, Kenya.
Mukhtar Shariff was the CEO of Afrique Hospitality Group, a company he
created in January 2021 in order to build a restaurant, event space, and food service
company in Bloomington, Minnesota. The stated purpose of Afrique Hospitality was
to promote African culture, community, and economic empowerment through
innovative cuisine and experiences. Mukhtar Shariff funded the development of
Afrique with misappropriated Federal Child Nutrition Program funds from Empire
Cuisine & Market, ThinkTechAct, and other entities that fraudulently obtained
Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
Mukhtar Shariff also operated a food distribution site in Bloomington,
Minnesota, under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. Mukhtar Shariff claimed
that his site served meals to 3,500 children per day, seven days a week. In support of
these claims, he submitted fake meal count sheets, invoices, and rosters of children.
Abdimajid Nur and Hayat Nur participated in the scheme by creating fake
and fraudulent meal count sheets, invoices, and rosters containing the names of
children purportedly receiving meals at the food sites.
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B. The Fraudulent Food Sites
To advance the fraud, the defendants created dozens of Federal Child Nutrition
Program sites throughout the State of Minnesota, which operated under the
sponsorship of both Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition. The defendants
collectively claimed to be serving meals to tens of thousands of children each day
throughout the State of Minnesota, for which they fraudulently claimed and received
millions of dollars in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
At the pandemic’s outset, the defendants operated just a few Federal Child
Nutrition Program sites. In April 2020, Abdiaziz Farah and Abdimajid Nur’s Empire
Cuisine & Market LLC claimed to serve 5,456 meals at a single location, for which
they sought reimbursement of $17,500 from the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
However, the defendants’ Federal Child Nutrition Program claims rapidly
skyrocketed. In January 2021, Abdiaziz Farah and his co-conspirators claimed that
Empire Cuisine served more than 400,000 meals to children in a single month, for
which they fraudulently claimed to be entitled to more than $1.5 million in Federal
Child Nutrition Program funds.
Within a matter of months, Empire Cuisine & Market LLC professed to serve
thousands of children every day from approximately fifteen sites including locations
in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Faribault, Owatonna, Shakopee, Bloomington, Circle Pines,
and Savage. Similarly, Mahad Ibrahim’s first fraudulent foray began rather
modestly, with one site that claimed to serve 700 meals in September 2020 through
ThinkTechAct and Mind Foundry. Such modesty was short-lived. Within a few
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months of operations, Ibrahim fraudulently claimed he was serving more than
540,000 meals to needy children at more than a dozen locations.
The defendants’ fraud, like an aggressive cancer, spread and grew. As the
evidence will make clear, the number of sham food sites and phony meal claims
concocted by the defendants quickly snowballed through 2020 and 2021. At their
fraudulent peak in March 2021, the defendants claimed to serve 2.7 million meals to
children in just that month alone—an impossibility. Ultimately, by the time the
defendants’ scheme was exposed in early 2022, they collectively claimed to have
served over 18 million meals from 50 unique locations for which they fraudulently
sought reimbursement of $49 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
At trial, the evidence will establish how the defendants opened dozens of
Federal Child Nutrition Program sites around the state of Minnesota. Many of their
purported food “sites” were nothing more than inhospitable parking lots or derelict
commercial spaces, like these:
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The defendants listed as their purported food sites such locales as city parks,
apartment complexes, or community centers. But the jury will hear from witnesses
who had access or control over these locations. Those witnesses will testify that the
defendants did not provide thousands of meals as claimed. In some instances, the
defendants simply misappropriated the address and name of a location, like a city
park, without permission or authorization and then falsely claimed to be feeding kids
daily at the site. At some of their sites, the defendants claimed to be preparing their
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meals on site to feed children. However, witnesses from those sites—including
property managers, landlords, and neighbors—will testify about the falsity of such
claims. Among other things, these witnesses will explain that defendants did not—
and could not—prepare food at their respective sites as they claimed because there
were no amenities to do so.
The trial evidence will reveal that some of the defendants and their
conspirators created and submitted sham meal count sheets and phony attendance
rosters purporting to list the names of children who received meals at their sites,
often with demonstrably fake names, like “Man Sincere,” “Ron Donald,” and even
“John Doe.” Indeed, school district personnel will testify that the falsified names on
these rosters appear nowhere in the official school district enrollment records of
multiple school districts where the defendants professed to serve millions of meals.
In addition, the evidence will show that most of the children on the defendants’
rosters and meal count sheets were not even enrolled in the local school districts
where the defendants purported to be feeding them almost daily. That is because the
attendance rosters and meal count sheets were fake. Indeed, by way of example, the
email records of defendants Abdimajid Nur and Hayat Nur will make clear at trial
how such sham records were used in the scheme, including Abdimajid Nur’s
instructions to Hayat Nur for creating fake records:
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In support of their fraudulent claims, the defendants and their conspirators
additionally created and submitted fraudulent invoices purporting to show their
purchase of food to feed children. Repeatedly throughout the scheme, the defendants
used invoices purporting to show massive payments:
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Defendants Abdimajid Nur and Hayat Nur created some of these fake invoices,
as their Google documents and emails will show. For instance, in one email, Hayat
Nur forwarded herself a “master document,” an invoice that could be edited. As Hayat
Nur put it, “don’t save it as a PDF!!!”
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Hayat Nur created multiple invoices during the scheme that fraudulently contained
vast payments for food. In one January 2022 email alone, Hayat Nur sent invoices
purporting to document the purchase of more than $10 million in food and expenses
related to the program.
However, these massive payments on Hayat Nur’s invoices purported to be for
the purchase of food and meals to be served at the sites but, in reality, the defendants
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used Empire Cuisine and Market, Bushra Wholesalers, and other companies to divert
Federal Child Nutrition Program funds and convert them for their own use.
C. The Money Laundering
In all, the defendants claimed to have served more than 18 million meals to
children. Based on their fraudulent claims, the defendants received more than $47
million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds over an 18-month period from
summer 2020 through January 2022. These federal funds were received by the
defendants’ companies from Partners in Nutrition or Feeding Our Future.
The defendants created and used an array of entities and shell companies to
receive, launder, and distribute their fraudulent proceeds. Some of these companies
purported to be meal vendors providing meals and food to program sites, but in
reality, the companies were shells created to disguise the source and ownership of the
fraud proceeds. The defendants transferred millions of dollars between their shell
companies to conceal the source of the funds, and then used the shell companies to
purchase millions of dollars’ worth of real estate and cars, pay for luxury travel, and
fund their lifestyles and personal spending.
1. The “Vendor” Companies
The defendants used “vendor” companies—ostensibly in the business of
providing wholesale food distribution—to launder their fraudulent proceeds. In
reality, the vendor companies provided only a fraction of the food that their sites
claimed to be serving and acted a source to conceal the source of the fraud proceeds.
Most of the defendants’ fraudulent food sites were nominally opened in the
name of Mahad Ibrahim’s non-profit, ThinkTechAct, which received more than $21
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million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds from Partners in Nutrition or
Feeding Our Future. As Mahad Ibrahim’s own records will establish, ThinkTechAct,
in turn, paid the bulk of these funds over to the vendor Empire Cuisine & Market.
ThinkTechAct purported to pay Empire Cuisine & Market for food distributed at its
various sites. Instead ThinkTechAct used Empire Cuisine & Market to receive and
launder the Federal Child Nutrition Program funds while concealing the money as
payments for the purchase of food.
The defendants also used Bushra Wholesalers to receive and launder fraud
proceeds. Said Farah and Abdiwahab Aftin registered Bushra Wholesalers on
February 10, 2021. Bushra Wholesale purported to be a vendor—a food distribution
company from which Empire Cuisine & Market purchased food to be served at their
sites. In reality, the company was used to receive and launder the proceeds of the
fraud scheme and to produce fake invoices purporting to document the purchase of
food.
For example, on February 16, 2021, six days after they registered Bushra
Wholesalers, Said Farah and Abdiwahab Aftin opened a bank account in the name of
their new company. That same day, Said Farah and Abdiwahab Aftin deposited two
checks—a $100,000 check dated February 11, 2021, from ThinkTechAct Foundation
for “food storage” and a $100,000 check dated February 16, 2021, from Empire
Cuisine & Market for “wholesale products.” This $200,000 came from Federal Child
Nutrition Program funds.
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Said Farah and Abdiwahab Aftin’s own financial records will clearly show that
they did not use this money to purchase food or “wholesale products.” Instead, on
February 23, 2021, they wired $80,000 to a tire company in China—Prinx Chengshan
Tire Co—for “goods.” One week later, Abdiaziz Farah wired another $80,000 in food
money from Empire Cuisine & Market to this same Chinese company for “brand new
tires.”
2. The Shell Companies
The defendants also created and used an array of other companies to conceal
and launder their fraud proceeds.
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Empire Enterprises LLC
For example, during the course of the scheme, Abdiaziz Farah created a shell
company called Empire Enterprises LLC. Abdiaziz Farah registered Empire
Enterprises with the Minnesota Secretary of State on April 5, 2021. The following
day, Abdiaziz Farah opened up a bank account in the name of Empire Enterprises
and used it to receive and launder the proceeds of the fraud scheme.
Abdiaziz Farah immediately deposited a $432,796 check from ThinkTechAct
into his new Empire Enterprises account. The memo line indicated that the money
was for “CACFP Food.” The check was dated April 3, 2021—two days before Abdiaziz
Farah registered the company and three days before he opened a bank account on
behalf of the company.
Two weeks later, on April 23, 2021, Abdiaziz Farah wrote a check for $100,000
to MIB Holdings LLC—a shell company created and used by Mahad Ibrahim to
receive and launder fraud proceeds. The memo line of the check claimed the payment
was for “consulting.”
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On May 8, 2021, Abdiaziz Farah deposited two more checks totaling more than
$700,000 into the Empire Enterprises account. The checks were from Mahad
Ibrahim’s company, ThinkTechAct. Again, the memo lines indicated the money was
for “CACFP Food.”
Abdiaziz Farah did not use this money to purchase food. Instead, three days
later he again sent a chunk of the funds back to Mahad Ibrahim via his shell company,
MIB Holdings. The check for $172,329 claimed that the money was for “program
consulting.”
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One week later, on May 15, 2021, Abdiaziz Farah wrote a $250,000 check from
the Empire Enterprises account to a custom home builder that he had hired to build
a new, custom home on Prior Lake.
In July 2021, Abdiaziz Farah used $1 million from this Empire Enterprises
account to purchase two lakefront lots on Prior Lake on which to build his new,
custom home.
In all, Abdiaziz Farah used Empire Enterprises to receive and launder more
than $7 million in fraud proceeds, including more than $3 million from ThinkTechAct,
more than $2 million from Empire Cuisine & Market, and more than $400,000 from
Afrique Hospitality Group.
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Nur Consulting LLC
Abdimajid Nur created his own shell company, Nur Consulting LLC, to receive
his share of the fraud proceeds. Abdimajid Nur, who graduated from high school in
June 2019, registered Nur Consulting LLC on April 4, 2021. Two days later, he
opened an account in the name of his new company and immediately deposited a
$30,000 check from Empire Cuisine & Market into the account. The memo line stated
that the money was for “consulting.”
Over the course of the next 10 months, Abdimajid Nur deposited more than
$900,000 into the Nur Consulting bank account, including more than $400,000 in
“consulting” payments from Empire Cuisine & Market, $220,000 from Bushra
Wholesalers for “staff training” and “project management,” and $77,000 from
ThinkTechAct for “food service” and “food program” management and for
“CACFP Food.”
Abdimajid Nur spent his share of the fraud proceeds freely. He used funds to
purchase cars. In August 2021, for example, he purchased a 2021 Dodge Ram pickup
for $64,000.
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Six weeks later, he purchased a 2021 Hyundai Sante Fe.
In July 2021, Abdimajid Nur used fraud proceeds to take a honeymoon to the
Maldives, where he stayed in a private villa. He also spent $30,000 in fraud proceeds
at a jewelry store in Dubai, again via his shell company Nur Consulting.
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During the same period in which he received nearly $1 million from his co-
conspirators for his role in the fraud scheme, Abdimajid Nur was also enrolled as a
full-time college student at an online college, Herzing University. Abdimajid Nur
used proceeds from the fraud scheme to pay an online company to take his college
courses for him. Specifically, he paid $12,000 from his shell company, Nur Consulting,
to a company called PayMeToDoYourHomework.com, which agreed to take his
courses for him, including all homework assignments and exams, with a guaranteed
A or B in each course. Abdimajid Nur paid the company approximately $5,000 to take
all his Fall 2021 courses for him. In January 2022, he paid another $6,000 to have
the company take all his Spring 2022 semester courses.
MIB Holdings
Mahad Ibrahim used a company called MIB Holdings LLC to receive and
launder proceeds of the fraud scheme. Ibrahim deposited more than $2 million from
entities involved in the scheme, including: (a) more than $900,000 from Empire
Cuisine & Market; (b) more than $500,000 from Empire Enterprises; (c) more than
$500,000 from Bushra Wholesalers; and (d) more than $100,000 from Afrique
Hospitality Group. The checks and wire transfers indicated that the payments were
for “consulting” and “program operations.”
Ibrahim used much of this money to purchase property and build a custom
home in Columbus, Ohio.
3. The Spending of the Fraud Proceeds
The defendants spent their fraudulent proceeds freely. They spent millions of
dollars purchasing real estate, including property in Minnesota, Kentucky, Ohio, and
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Kenya. The government expects to introduce evidence of these property purchases,
including title company records and financial records showing the source of the
fraudulent proceeds used to make these purchases.
Defendants also used fraudulent proceeds to purchase cars, largely in cash
with no financing. The government expects to introduce evidence of these purchases,
including car dealership records, car title records, and financial records showing the
source of the funds used to make these purchases.
The defendants also used fraud proceeds for personal spending, including to
fund luxury travel, purchase jewelry, and otherwise fund their lifestyles. They also
used the proceeds of their scheme to invest in other businesses that had nothing to
do with feeding Minnesota children. For example, Mahad Ibrahim invested $90,000
in a company that operated an escape room in Orlando, Florida. Mukhtar Shariff
used millions of dollars in Federal Child Nutrition Program to hire an architect and
contractor to build his event center, Afrique Hospitality Group. Abdiaziz Farah and
Abdiwahab Aftin sent more than $900,000 in fraud proceeds to Kenya in order to
purchase five condo units in a building being constructed in Nairobi.
In short, defendants used the Federal Child Nutrition Program funds they
received as a slush fund to enrich themselves, rather than to feed children.
D. The Kickback Scheme
To carry out this massive fraud, defendants Abdiaziz Farah, Said Farah, and
Mukhtar Shariff participated in a conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery.
They paid bribes and kickbacks to employees of Feeding Our Future and Partners In
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Nutrition in exchange for the sponsorship of their fraudulent participation in the
Federal Child Nutrition Program.
At trial, the evidence will show that Feeding Our Future, in particular,
operated a “pay-to-play” scheme in which individuals seeking to operate fraudulent
sites under its sponsorship had to kick back a portion of their fraudulent proceeds to
Feeding Our Future employees. Many of these kickbacks were paid in cash or
disguised as “consulting fees” paid to shell companies created by Feeding Our Future
employees to conceal the true nature of the payments and to make them appear
legitimate. At least one witness, a former Feeding Our Future employee, will explain
how the pay-to-play scheme worked, including the formation of shell companies,
disguised payments, and the creation of a sham, backdated “consulting agreement”
at the behest of defendants Abdiaziz Farah and Said Farah. Among other things, this
witness will testify about the substantial kickback and bribe payments tendered by
defendants Abdiaziz Farah, Said Farah, and Mukhtar Shariff.
E. Defendant Abdiaziz Farah’s Passport Fraud
On January 20, 2022, federal agents executed multiple search warrants
related to this investigation, including searches of both Abdiaziz Farah and Mohamed
Ismail’s residences. During the searches of their residences, federal agents seized
Farah’s and Ismail’s passports.
Approximately two months later, on March 22, 2022, Farah and Ismail applied
for new passports at the Minneapolis Passport Agency in downtown Minneapolis.
Both Farah and Ismail lied on their passport applications, claiming that their original
passports had been “lost.”
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Both Farah and Ismail submitted a Statement Regarding a Lost or Stolen U.S.
Passport Book and/or Card as part of their application. On the form, Farah again
falsely represented that he had lost his U.S. passport. Farah wrote that he “could not
find [it] anywhere in my house or car.” In response to prompt asking him to “[e]xplain
where the loss or theft occurred,” Farah answered, “unknown.” Similarly, in response
to the question as to when the passport was lost or stolen, Farah falsely stated
“unknown.”
Similarly, Ismail claimed—falsely—that he had lost his passport “at home.”
He also claimed, falsely, that he had filed a filed a police report in connection with
his “lost” passport.
Both Farah and Ismail signed these documents under penalty of perjury, and
after receiving a written warning that false statements on his application could result
in federal criminal charges.
Based on their false representations, the State Department issued Farah and
Ismail new passports that day.
Well knowing that he was a target of the investigation, Farah booked a one-
way flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on a one-way flight to
Nairobi, Kenya departing on March 24, 2022. Farah had booked the one-way ticket a
few days prior to submitting his false passport application, on March 16, 2022. Farah
ultimately did not board the flight. Approximately one month later, on April 20, 2022,
Ismail used his new passport to check in for his flight at the Rochester International
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Airport on April 20. Ismail arrived at MSP airport that afternoon and presented his
ticket to board his flight bound for Nairobi. FBI agents arrested him on the jetway.
Both Farah and Ismail were charged with making false statements in their
applications for a U.S. passport, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1542. Ismail has since pled
guilty to this count.
IV. POTENTIAL LEGAL AND EVIDENTIARY ISSUES
A. Summary Testimony and Charts
The United States intends to call law enforcement agents to testify as
summary witnesses in its case-in-chief. “The testimony of a summary witness may be
received so long as she bases her summary on evidence received in the case and is
available for cross-examination.” United States v. Ellefsen, 655 F.3d 769, 780
(8th Cir. 2011) (quoting United States v. King, 616 F.2d 1034, 1041 (8th Cir. 1980)).
In addition, because this case involves voluminous documentary evidence,
including bank records and other financial documents, the government intends to
offer summary charts into evidence in order to assist the jury. Summary charts are
properly admitted when (1) the charts fairly summarize voluminous trial evidence,
(2) they assist the jury in understanding testimony already introduced, and (3) the
witness who prepared the charts is subject to cross-examination with all documents
used to prepare the summary. United States v. Spires, 628 F.3d 1049, 1052-53 (8th
Cir. 2011) (citing Fed. R. Evid. 1006). “Also, summaries may include assumptions and
conclusions so long as they are ‘based upon evidence in the record.’” Id. at 1053.
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B. Stipulations and Self-Authentication Pursuant to
Federal Rule of Evidence 902
The parties have discussed foundational stipulations with respect to certain
business records that will obviate the need to call custodians of records as witnesses
at trial. While the parties are still working through the details of these stipulations,
the government is hopeful that the parties will be able to put this stipulation on the
record at the pretrial conference.
With respect to any business records for which the defendants are unwilling to
stipulate with respect to foundation, the government will be providing notice to
defense counsel of its intent to offer these business records pursuant to the
self-authentication provisions of Federal Rules of Evidence 803(6) and 902(11). The
records will be identified with particularity to the defense in the government’s
Federal Rule of Evidence 902 notices, and they have all previously been provided to
the defense in the government’s Rule 16 disclosures. Certifications for these records
have also been made available for the defendant’s review. The government will also
seek to admit certain public records pursuant to the self-authentication provisions of
Federal Rules of Evidence 803(8) and 902(1) and (2).
Dated: April 2, 2024 Respectfully Submitted,
ANDREW M. LUGER
United States Attorney
/s/ Joseph H. Thompson
BY: JOSEPH H. THOMPSON
MATTHEW S. EBERT
HARRY M. JACOBS
CHELSEA A. WALCKER
DANIEL W. BOBIER
Assistant United States Attorneys
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