Star Tribune
State seeks to shut down nonprofits accused of defrauding federal meals program
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office is seeking to shut down 23 nonprofits accused of defrauding federal meals programs, most of which are related to the massive Feeding Our Future investigation.
The 23 civil cases, announced Wednesday, seek to legally dissolve the nonprofits from operating in Minnesota — a procedural step separate from more significant federal criminal cases.
Last fall, federal prosecutors announced the first indictments in the Feeding Our Future investigation, alleging a more than $250 million fraud scheme. Since then, 60 people have been charged, accused of stealing federal money meant to feed children in need while distributing little or no meals and spending the money on lavish homes, cars and trips.
The Attorney General’s Office can’t file criminal charges in the case, but it is responsible for enforcing charitable giving laws in Minnesota. Last January, Ellison’s office sued the leaders behind one of Feeding Our Future’s sites, ThinkTechAct Foundation. The Attorney General’s Office also sought court supervision of Feeding Our Future’s closure as a nonprofit, which is still ongoing.
Asked why it took more than a year after the federal investigation became public to seek to dissolve the organizations, a spokesman for Ellison’s office said it took the agency time to conduct an independent investigation of the 23 organizations — doing site visits, reviewing bank records and other steps to make sure there were no legitimate charitable purposes behind the nonprofits before seeking the “drastic step” of dissolving the organizations.
Some of the organizations the office are seeking to dissolve haven’t been named in federal indictments but were led by people who have been indicted. The state found that the 23 nonprofits were created or revived at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to tap into the federally funded meals program and had a series of state law violations — from misusing bank records to not conducting legitimate nonprofit activities on-site.
“Nonprofits are supposed to benefit the public — not defraud it,” Ellison said in a statement. “Most nonprofits work hard and do good work to help the people of Minnesota — but not these sham organizations.”
The organizations in the civil cases are: Academy for Youth Excellence, Advanced Youth Athletic Development, African Chamber of Commerce Education, Bet On Better Future, Community Enhancement Services Inc., Gedo Community Services, Hobyo Health Care Foundation, Hope Academy for Youth & Women Empowerment, Minnesota African Chamber of Commerce, Minnesota’s Somali Community, Multiple Community Services, Optimum Community Services, Serving Younger Generation, Somali American Faribault Education, South West Metro Youth, Stigma-Free International, the Free Minded Institute, United Enrichment with Heart, Unity Social Service, Urban Advantage Services, Xogmaal Media Group and Xogmaal Services, Youth Higher Educational Achievement and Youth Inventor’s Lab.
Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman’s wife, Ilo Amba, founded Urban Advantage Services. She hasn’t been criminally charged or accused of fraud by federal investigators.
In court documents, state attorneys said Amba established the “sham corporation” to direct money to herself and family, and her organization, which has no apparent legitimate activities or assets, refused to respond to the civil investigation. According to the state Education Department, which oversees the federal funding distributed to the state for these meal programs, her nonprofit received $461,533 in federal reimbursements in 2020 and 2021.
Reached Wednesday night, Osman, who is running for another term in next month’s election, said he wasn’t free to immediately comment on the state allegations. Last month, Ellison endorsed Osman, his fellow DFLer, for re-election.
Another of the organizations named in the new civil cases, Minnesota’s Somali Community, was run by Sharmarke Issa, who resigned from his position at the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. He was indicted by federal prosecutors last year.
A St. Paul man who was in critical condition following a fire last week at his home in the Battle Creek neighborhood has died, marking the city’s eighth fire death this year.
According to a news release from the St. Paul Fire Department, the man was found unconscious in the basement of a house on Nelson Street early in the morning of Oct. 17, after fire crews had extinguished a fire at the two-story residence. Paramedics undertook life-saving measures before taking him to the hospital.
No one else was injured in the fire, which was found to have been accidental and started in the engine of a car parked in the tuck-under garage. The fire was confined to the garage, but heavy smoke filled the house. Smoke detectors enabled others in the house to exit safely, officials said.
That hasn’t ebbed with Simpli-Fi. The startup incorporated in 2018 as a company based out of Florida that integrated technology systems together in commercial buildings to work as a single unit. But business sputtered when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and Campbell had to make staff cuts to his team of 16 employees. He called it one of “the worst times” of his life.
“But during that time is where we made a pivot,” Campbell said.
He set out to find a new technology, eventually spotting NASA’s electronic nose thanks to Brown Venture Group, a St. Paul based firm that supports Black, Latino and Indigenous tech startups. Campbell’s brother, Paul Campbell, is a partner at the firm but said he recused himself from the investment decision.
Chris Campbell was skeptical of the electronic nose’s capabilities at first but sprung for a commercialization license after spending a year researching the technology. By this past summer, he had moved the company to Minnesota and specifically the Osborne building because both are “known for device creation,” he said.
Simpli-Fi’s sensor packs some of the science of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry — which require huge machines — into a sensor the size of a dime, Campbell said. Using nanotubes, the sensor picks up metabolic qualities in the air and breath, he said.
For now, the company is focused on the C. diff-sensing Provectus Canary device, which scans the air around a hospital patient to detect the bacteria that causes the infection, which has gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea. The company is working toward the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval for using the sensor to detect various diseases.
A Minneapolis man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for murdering his neighbor in their North Side apartment building last year.
Walter Lee Hill, 59, had pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree intentional murder. He will get credit for having served nearly a year in jail.
Police were called to the Gateway Lofts on W. Broadway Avenue last November on a report that someone was shot. Officers found Donald Edmondson, 60, dead on the floor of his apartment with a gunshot wound to the chest.
A video camera in the hallway showed Hill knocking on Edmondson’s door, reaching into his sweatshirt pocket and firing his gun once. Hill then left in his Lexus, which officers found near Elliot Park downtown.
They spotted Hill walking nearby, asked for his ID and arrested him when he said something to the effect that they had the right guy.
A witness told police they saw Hill shoot Edmondson, and another said there had been an ongoing dispute between the two. Two days before the murder, Hill had called police because he believed neighbors were breaking into his apartment.
In a statement, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Edmondson “should still be alive. A violent act committed with such disregard by Mr. Hill has taken him from his family. This sentence delivers accountability and protects our community, and I hope it brings some measure of peace to Mr. Edmondson’s loved ones as they attempt to move forward with their lives.”
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