Bekam Merdassa was the very first Feeding Our Future defendant to plead guilty in the case, way back in October 2022. Today, he became just the 9th defendant to be sentenced.
At the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, Judge Nancy Brasel sentenced Merdassa to 2 years of probation. He was ordered to forfeit $343,000. Here are the sentences pronounced to date:
We have another sentencing (#10) scheduled for Wednesday and one (#11) scheduled for next week. In between, on Thursday, April 9, we have what would be Conviction #64 scheduled. Gandi Yusuf Mohamed is scheduled to change his plea Thursday morning. He is the last remaining member of the Ikram Mohamed family of defendants to enter a guilty plea.
You may recall that last year state Attorney General Keith Ellison was shamed into returning a $2,500 campaign donation he received from Gandi, as well as additional cash from others linked to the scandal.
A list of upcoming courtroom events in the sprawling federal case:
