A leader in the Feeding Our Future scheme pleaded guilty Thursday to wire fraud and admitted to receiving $11.4 million that he claimed was going to meals for low-income children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Haji Osman Salad, 34, appeared Thursday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud. His other charges, related to wire fraud and money laundering, will be dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

In 2020, Salad started Haji’s Kitchen, a Brooklyn Park-based company that claimed to serve 15.7 million free meals to low-income children between June 2020 and March 2022. The company received millions in federal funding intended to reimburse them for meals. But only a “minimal portion” of the meals they reported were actually served, according to the charges. Millions of dollars instead went to personal uses, such as properties and vehicles, U.S. Assistant Attorney Matthew Ebert said at the hearing.

As part of the agreement, Salad is required to pay back the $11.4 million he received in restitution. He also agreed to forfeit the properties and vehicles he bought with fraud money. His plea came a day after co-defendant Sharmarke Issa, 42, also changed his plea to guilty on one count of wire fraud.

Salad admitted to taking at least $2 million in federal funds for himself to purchase properties, and $400,000 for vehicles. The vehicles included Mercedes and Land Rover SUVs, according to charges.

The defendant admitted to creating shell companies, such as US Halal Foods LLC, that were not actually involved in the food business and were used to launder money as part of the scheme.

In all, Salad was responsible for $19 million in lost funding from the Federal Child Nutrition Program, Ebert said in court.

Salad is the 20th person to plead guilty in the Feeding Our Future federal fraud case, out of the 70 defendants charged in Minnesota so far. Prosecutors have called it one of the largest pandemic-era fraud cases in the United States. The defendants are charged with stealing more than $250 million from federal food programs that reimbursed nonprofits, schools and day cares for feeding low-income children.

Nine staff members at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater were treated at a hospital and released Thursday after being exposed to a synthetic drug, according to the state Department of Corrections.

The staffers reported feeling lightheaded and nauseous with increased heart rates, the department said in a news release. Eight staff members were taken to Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater by paramedics, and one was administered Narcan.

The incident began at about 7:45 a.m., when a staffer responded to a report of an inmate smoking an unknown substance in his cell and soon began to feel ill. A short time later, three other staffers who had responded to the inmate began feeling sick, and two of them went to the hospital.

In a separate incident in the same housing unit, another inmate man threw a container with an unknown substance that landed near three staffers, who then began feeling ill and were taken to the hospital.

Investigators have not yet identified the substance, the department said.

The inmate caught smoking in his cell told investigators that it was a stronger than expected dose of synthetic marijuana. Officials said that another form of synthetic cannabinoids already had a presence in the facility because it can be purchased online and reach the facility’s population through mail.

“These synthetic substances are particularly dangerous because the chemical properties that comprise them are unknown and uncontrolled,” said Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell in a statement. “We are prioritizing our investigative efforts to identify and prosecute those responsible for conspiring to introduce these substances into the secure correctional environment. For the safety of our staff, we are reviewing and updating our emergency response protocols to suspected drug use incidents.”

ROCHESTER — After bouncing from school auditoriums to community centers, husband-and-wife pastors Andy and Christy Cass are ready to set down roots for the burgeoning church they founded five years ago.

Echo Church, a nondenominational church that has garnered a following with its approachable, music-driven services, announced this week it has purchased the former Cinemagic movie theater on Superior Drive in northwest Rochester.

The church paid $5 million for the 44,000-square-foot building, Andy Cass said. The immediate plan is to host worship services in one of the building’s 12 theaters before gradually expanding “at the pace of people’s generosity.”

“We are going to grow into this building like I grew into my childhood sneakers,” Andy said. “You just buy it a couple of sizes large, but in a couple of years you will fit into it really good.”

Echo launched in September 2019, just months before the start of the COVID pandemic. When stay-at-home orders prevented the church from holding in-person services, the Casses, who said they felt called to start the church, pivoted toward digital media. Using Andy’s background in video production, the church was able to continue building connections online during an otherwise isolating period.

The church had long considered buying the former Castle building downtown, where it held “portable” services once restrictions were lifted. But when those plans fell through, they turned to the Castle’s eventual owner, David Arnett, setting off a series of discussions that led them to the theater, also owned by Arnett.

“When we started this conversation, I really didn’t know how it was going to work, but we were able to do it,” Andy said. “I would just call it a miracle.”

Since they announced the purchase of the theater to their congregation, dozens of volunteers have stepped up to start converting the former theater into a place of worship. That work includes “putting some lipstick” on the property with new paint, flooring and furniture. It also means doing a deep clean of the entire building.