Defendant in federal meal fraud trial testifies he distributed ‘tons’ of food

A defendant in the Feeding Our Future trial testified Thursday that he doled out food to thousands of children in Bloomington, but wasn’t responsible for any of the financial paperwork that resulted in millions of dollars in federal reimbursements.

Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, 33, of Burnsville, was the only one of the seven defendants in the joint trial to take the stand to testify and the only one who called witnesses in his defense. The six others rested their case without any testimony.

Shariff’s attorney, Frederick Goetz, asked Shariff if he was involved in the dozens of invoices, child attendance rosters, reimbursement claims or meal count forms that the Bloomington company he was CEO of submitted in the federal child nutrition programs — forms that prosecutors have alleged were inflated or made up to rake in money.

“No, that wasn’t my role,” Shariff said Thursday, the second day of his testimony, adding that he didn’t even review some documents that he forwarded on to Feeding Our Future, the St. Anthony nonprofit at the center of the case. But, he added: “I had no reason to believe there was an issue.”

Thursday was the final day of testimony in the high-profile six-week trial. Attorneys will give their closing arguments Friday and Monday before the jury starts deliberations.

The trial is the first one in a broader FBI investigation that has led to charges against 70 people accused of stealing money meant to fund meals for kids in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors say it’s one of the largest pandemic-related fraud cases in the U.S., with more than $250 million stolen from U.S. Department of Agriculture reimbursements given to schools, day cares and nonprofits for feeding low-income children after school and during the summer.

Prosecutors allege the defendants created shell companies to launder money disguised as consulting fees, submitted rosters of made-up children’s names and inflated meal claims to receive more than $40 million for 18 million meals at food sites across the state.

Shariff testified for about five hours while his mother, wife and other family members looked on. The married father of two was asked by Goetz about the businesses he built pre-pandemic. Were they shell companies, Goetz asked.

“Absolutely not,” Shariff said.

He said he was born in Somalia, immigrated with his family to the U.S. when he was 5 years old and grew up on the East Coast. He later moved to Seattle and worked as a software engineer at Microsoft, then for a technology consulting company. In his free time, he said, he ran his own consulting company to help small businesses and the Somali embassy with digital marketing. When his job went remote in 2020, he and his family moved to Minnesota.

At a Bloomington mosque, Shariff met Mahad Ibrahim, who was charged in the same indictment. Ibrahim and other leaders wanted to start a cultural center called Afrique, and they selected Shariff to be the CEO, he said.

They landed about $700,000 in private investments to fund the project, he said. One of those investors, Sulekha Hassan, testified Thursday — the last of nine witnesses Shariff’s defense team called — that she invested $460,000. She said through an interpreter that she immigrated to the U.S. in 2002 and saved up money from working two jobs to buy multiple businesses. She testified she wasn’t aware that any federal funding went toward the project and she hasn’t been paid back any of the money from the defunct company.

On cross examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Walcker asked Hassan about being repaid a $250,000 loan by another person, who used federal money and was charged in the broader case. She said she didn’t know where the person got their money.

Shariff testified that he had only lived in Minnesota for about a month when Ibrahim asked him to help with meal programs, which he said he knew nothing about. He said Ibrahim, whom he considered to be a mentor, told him to submit forms and run the logistics of the food distribution.

“I didn’t have much knowledge of the program,” Shariff said. “I relied on his knowledge.”

Shariff said Ibrahim, who was Afrique’s CFO, and others put together the meal reimbursement forms, menus and attendance rosters and ordered the food from vendors — including Empire Cuisine & Market, the Shakopee restaurant led by two defendants.

Shariff said he and his team assembled the juice boxes, oranges, crackers and other produce into grocery bags, loaded the bags into trucks and distributed the bags to families at a Bloomington mosque and nearby middle school every Saturday in 2021. Goetz showed the jury several photos and videos of the food distributions.

Goetz asked if the meal count forms showing 2,000 to 3,000 children a day receiving meals in Bloomington sounded reasonable to Shariff given his direct knowledge of the work. Shariff said yes, adding later that there were “tons and tons of food coming in.”

Under cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson questioned Shariff about dozens of checks to Afrique, invoices and meal count forms. Shariff answered that he didn’t know anything about the entities or people — including other defendants — and didn’t prepare the forms because Ibrahim oversaw that as the CFO.

“I didn’t handle any of the payments,” Shariff said, adding he didn’t know where the money was coming from or how recipients spent funds.

On redirect examination, Goetz asked why Shariff didn’t know the details of the forms he submitted. Shariff said Ibrahim handled financials while Shariff focused on the food distributions and worked to secure city permitting and architect designs for the cultural center, which was like a full-time job, he said.

Goetz asked if Shariff ever knowingly made a false statement, submitted bribes or had reason to believe the food program money was the result of criminal activity.

“Absolutely not,” he said.

In the past month, prosecutors have called more than 30 witnesses. Shariff’s attorneys called nine witnesses Wednesday and Thursday, with several people saying they saw long lines of people outside Bloomington sites receiving meals.

Shariff and the other defendants — Said Shafii Farah, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin and Hayat Mohamed Nur — were charged in 2022 with wire fraud and money laundering, among other charges.