Star Tribune
Members of MULDA, group that advocated for higher pay for rideshare drivers, allege leader committed fraud
The rideshare drivers’ nonprofit that made waves in Minneapolis in their push for higher compensation from Uber and Lyft has been fracturing from within, with disagreements over leadership and finances revealed in a lawsuit detailing accusations of fraud against its leader Eid Ali. Six drivers are behind the lawsuit.
Four of them are board members of the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association, who say Ali tried to jettison them from their positions after they attempted to review MULDA’s corporate books. The Minnesota Reformer first reported the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, rideshare drivers Farhan Badel, Mohamed Bulle, Mustafa Abdile, Ahmed Mohamedcq, Ahmed Igale and Dawit Kassa started organizing with other drivers in the summer of 2022 in the parking area of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport over concerns about their pay, which was lower than the minimum wage prescribed by cities like Minneapolis. That led to the formation of a driver’s committee and the selection of Eid Ali, who said he had organized taxi drivers in the past, as leader. Ali had the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association incorporated as a nonprofit and started collecting “membership” fees of $200 apiece from drivers. Within a month MULDA had collected more than $60,000 from drivers who wanted to back the organization’s efforts to pass legislation to increase their pay, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs allege Ali later incorporated two other nonprofits, “MULDA-RC” and “MULDA” without their knowledge, and changed the articles of incorporation of the Minnesota Uber-Lyft Drivers Association to say it would have no members, though Ali continued to accept online payments from the public. The suit claims that Ali’s creation of three different nonprofits based on the increasingly prominent advocacy organization, as well as an associate of Ali’s incorporation of a “MuldaActionFund, P.A.” confused drivers and made them concerned about how the organization was being run. Those drivers created a competing organization called “Mulda Members.”
The board of Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association named Bulle, Abdile, Mohamed and Kassa as board members in December 2023. The plaintiffs felt their appointments were made as gestures of increasing accountability, according to the suit, but that they were kept in the dark about the nonprofit’s operations.
Following that, Ali tried to unilaterally remove the four new board members from the board at a meeting for which they were texted insufficient notice, according to the suit. Later, they were denied requests to inspect new bylaws and accounting records created by the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association. The plaintiffs are asking for a district court order on the Minnesota Uber-Lyft Drivers Association to produce the records requested and damages, and a temporary restraining order to prevent Ali from removing them from the board.
A person who answered the MULDA’s phone asked the Star Tribune to send an email for comment, but did not immediately respond.
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.
Following the group’s announcement, the Harris-Walz campaign said the governor met with families of American hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas during his visit to Washington, D.C. Thursday. During their meeting, he assured them that he and Harris would try to get them released while reaffirming their commitment to Israel’s security.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has worked closely with the Uncommitted Movement said Thursday she hopes the Harris-Walz campaign will continue to have a dialogue with them.
“My hope still remains that Harris and Walz would take this offer, to win their their votes,” she said in an interview on Capitol Hill.
Omar also said she plans to continue to support the Harris-Walz ticket regardless of the group’s decision.
A Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson said the vice president remains committed to ending the war in Gaza.
“She will continue working to bring the war in Gaza to an end in a way where Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
Star Tribune
Nine Stillwater prison staffers treated after exposure to synthetic drug used by inmates
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.”
