Federal prosecutors secured the first two of what are scheduled to be six (6) guilty pleas this week in the Feeding Our Future fraud. The six are part of a group of seven defendants, all related by blood or marriage, charged back in January 2024 with stealing almost $15 million from the free food program.
Ikram Yusuf Mohamed, 42, is the lead defendant of the group and formerly was a staffer of the Feeding Our Future nonprofit. She is Defendant No. 63 in the case (out of 79 so far) and becomes conviction No. 58 with her guilty plea.
Under her plea deal, filed today, she faces between 6 and 10 years in federal prison and must pay back $1,349,508, her take from the $15 million scheme.
KARE-11’s Lou Raguse attended the hearing and reported on Twitter (X),
As part of the agreement she will not be prosecuted for another crimes investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They believed she helped collect money from the Somali community to bribe a juror in the [Feeding Our Future] first trial. She also is the one who secretly recorded Attorney General Keith Ellison when she and other fraudsters tried to ask for his help.
Also pleading guilty today was Ikram’s husband Shakur Abdinur Abdisalam, 46. Under his plea deal he faces 10 to 27 months in prison. He owes restitution of about $457,000.
Also appearing in court today, but not pleading guilty, was Ikram’s brother, Gandi Mohamed. KSTP-5 was there in the courtroom this morning and reports,
Gandi Yusuf Mohamed, rejected a plea deal Wednesday morning. Under the terms of the deal, he would’ve been sentenced to less than three years in federal prison.
KSTP reports,
Gandi Mohamed is accused of using his companies, GAK Properties LLC and GIF Properties LLC, to receive and launder money from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Prosecutors say he fraudulently received and laundered $1.1 million.
In late December, MPR News reported on the involvement of Gandi, Gandi’s wife, and Ikram in a different state-subsidized business line, this one involving group homes.
The group homes, three of which are managed by [Gandi]’s wife, have billed the state for millions of dollars in the two years since his indictment.
Gandi’s wife, has never been charged. MPR News reported,
Another group home in a house GAK Properties owns was run by [Gandi]’s sister, Ikram Mohamed, at the time she was indicted as a co-defendant for her alleged part in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.
MPR notes that,
three businesses operating out of seven properties affiliated with [Gandi] received over $9.4 million from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, including $4.5 million since 2024, the year he was indicted.
If the other four defendants plead guilty on Friday, as expected, Gandi will be left alone to face a jury in a courtroom trial scheduled to begin in April.
