Star Tribune
An 18th defendant pleads guilty in Feeding Our Future fraud case
A Burnsville grocery store owner pleaded guilty Wednesday to a fraud charge in the sprawling Feeding Our Future case.
Hoda Ali Abdi, 53, of Burnsville was charged in February with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She’s the 18th defendant to plead guilty in the massive case, admitting in federal court on Wednesday that she submitted fake invoices, collecting more than $1 million in federal reimbursements for claiming to provide food as a vendor and serve meals at her distribution site to children in need — when little to no food or meals were actually provided.
She told U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel she was nervous on Wednesday, but made no comment about her involvement in the case. She declined to answer questions after the hearing, which was her first court appearance since charges were filed.
Her attorney, Thomas Kelly, said she has cooperated with the government throughout the process.
“This is obviously a horrible, tragic mistake,” Kelly said. “She’s very contrite and remorseful about the situation.”
Abdi, who has no prior criminal history, could face 24 to 30 months in prison. She also could owe nearly $1.3 million in restitution — the amount she received in the scheme from 2021 to 2023.
Abdi, who owned Alif Halal LLC in Burnsville, applied to be a vendor providing food to distribution sites run by co-conspirators. She also applied to run her own food distribution site. She was sponsored by Feeding Our Future and St. Paul nonprofit Partners in Nutrition, also called Partners in Quality Care, which were both tasked with overseeing meal sites.
Alif Halal LLC claimed to be a vendor to other co-conspirators’ food distribution sites, which submitted the fake invoices from Abdi to collect $3 million in reimbursements. Abdi was charged by criminal information, a charging document typically used when a defendant has agreed to plead guilty instead of the case going to a grand jury.
In March 2023, more than a year after the FBI raided Feeding Our Future’s offices and publicly revealed the massive fraud investigation, agents spoke with Abdi. Afterwards, some of her co-conspirators asked her to lie to investigators, prosecutors said and Abdi confirmed Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded meal programs at the center of the case reimburse nonprofits and schools for providing food to low-income children after school or during the summer.
The now-defunct St. Anthony nonprofit, Feeding Our Future, grew to become one of the largest sponsors of the programs in Minnesota. It oversaw hundreds of distribution sites during the pandemic, when federal waivers loosened in-person monitoring and oversight, making the program more vulnerable to fraud, investigators have said. Its executive director, Aimee Bock, has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to charges.
Since September 2022, 70 people have been charged in the case, which prosecutors say involved a system of kickbacks and bribes among associates, who used the money to buy luxury cars and homes instead of feeding children. The first trial is scheduled to start April 22.
The University of Minnesota has postponed a scheduled Tuesday night lecture from infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci after pro-Palestinian protests that included some protesters barricading Morrill Hall the day before.
On Monday night, several hundred pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at the building, which houses the Minneapolis campus’ administrative offices, as Students for a Democratic Society used tied-up patio furniture to form giant barricades blocking the building’s large front windows and its entrances. The protesters demanded the U divest from companies with ties to Israel. At least 11 of the protesters were arrested.
The university decided to postpone Fauci’s lecture set for Tuesday night because of “unexpected and complicated incidents” over the past day, university spokesman Jake Rickersaid in an email.
“Given the importance of this lecture and the unexpected and complicated incidents that occurred on campus in the past 24 hours, University officials determined it best to reschedule to ensure a great experience for attendees and our University community,” Ricker said.
All tickets for the lecture will be voided and information about the rescheduled date will be posted later, the university said in an online post about the postponement. Pre-paid parking will be automatically refunded, the university added.
Additional pro-Palestinian protests took place Tuesday afternoon at the university in front of Coffman Memorial Union. The protests prompted university officials to temporarily close down at least a dozen buildings in a Tuesday alert. Those included: Coffman Union, Weisman Museum, Hasselmo Hall, Ford Hall, Vincent Murphy Hall, Tate Lab, Morrill Hall, Northrop Auditorium, Johnston Hall, Walter Library, Smith Hall, and Kolthoff Hall. All other East Bank campus buildings were switched to keycard access only, according to the alert.
An anti-Fauci rally had also been planned by conservative group Action 4 Liberty to coincide with the lecture at the university, but that was moved after the lecture was canceled.
Star Tribune
Aunt IDs 3-year-old who was fatally shot in Minneapolis home, speaks about what happened
A close relative on Tuesday identified the 3-year-old boy who was fatally shot this week in his family’s northeast Minneapolis apartment a day earlier.
Woods said police have told the family that Jajuan got ahold of the gun and it went off.
“Someone left a loaded gun [in the home,” said Woods, who has started an online fundraiser for her sister, Charlotte Williams. “He got ahold of it thinking it was a toy.”
Woods said her nephew, who went by Junior, “loved trucks and dinosaurs. He was just so silly and goofy. He was a momma’s boy.”
Jajuan suffered a gunshot wound to the top of the head, a source with knowledge of the incident told the Star Tribune. Paramedics rushed the toddler to HCMC, where he died a short time later.
Woods said she did not know who owned the gun.
Police spokesman Trevor Folke said Tuesday evening there have been no arrests and had no update to share in the “active and ongoing investigation.”
Bergman is championing efforts to boost literacy and invest in early childhood programming, and getting there, she said, requires financial sustainability, and that may mean closings and mergers. She attended last week’s finance committee meeting — as she’s done on a regular basis — and described the mention of “opportunity” as another rosy way of avoiding hard truths.
The district is spread too thin, she said. Some schools could take more students. Yet in others, class sizes are huge and caseloads so large that educators can’t build relationships with students and families, she said.
“I just fundamentally believe, and it’s been one of the objectives of my campaign, to be someone out in the community talking about this moment, listening to reactions, and listening for the places where families could get on board with the possibility of their beloved school having to close,” she said.
A way to get there, Bergman said, is by consolidating buildings, and in turn, expanding programming — perhaps not far from the school left behind.
Callahan argues that the mere mention of closings is causing families to leave the district: “This is not something that should be talked about so flippantly,” she said.
She said she would entertain the idea only if there also are plans to stabilize and recruit students, plus answers to three questions: How much money is being saved by closing a building? How many students will be retained if the school closes? And how many new students have to enroll to keep it open?
