2 more plead guilty in Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, including fmr. Minneapolis mayor's aide
MINNEAPOLIS — Two more people have pleaded guilty in connection with the Feeding Our Future COVID relief fraud scheme.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota, Abdulkadir Nur Salah and Abdi Nur Salah both pleaded guilty Tuesday. Their sentencings have not yet been scheduled.
Both of them "knowingly participated in a scheme to defraud a federal child nutrition program designed to provide free meals to children in need," the attorney's office said.
Abdulkadir Nur Salah co-owned and operated a restaurant that received more than $16 million in fraudulent funds, the attorney's office said, while Abdi Nur Salah registered a nonprofit used to perpetrate the fraud scheme.
Abdi Nur Salah was also a senior policy aide to the mayor in Minneapolis, the attorney's office said.
What is the Feeding Our Future scandal?
Feeding Our Future was founded in 2017 by Aimee Bock with the mission of feeding hungry children throughout the Twin Cities. The nonprofit initially received just less than $3 million in federal funds, but that amount spiked to nearly $200 million by 2021.
When the nonprofit dissolved in February 2022, Bock said they had served meals to more than 30,000 kids in BIPOC communities and "did a lot of great work in the community."
The federal government charged Bock and more than 70 others in 2022 in what U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger called "the largest pandemic fraud in the United States." Bock maintains she is innocent of any wrongdoing.
The defendants are accused of using the majority of the stolen money to buy homes, property, luxury vehicles, jewelry and to pay for travel.
In June 2024, a Minnesota man pleaded guilty to bribery after a bag filled with $120,000 in cash was left at a juror's home amid the trial of seven defendants. That juror was dismissed, and five of the defendants were found guilty. Four others have been charged in the bribery case.