FBI agents search more Feeding Our Future defendants’ homes

As the FBI continues to investigate how jurors’ names were leaked to a woman who attempted to bribe a juror in the Feeding Our Future case, FBI agents searched several of the defendants’ suburban homes Wednesday.

About a dozen FBI employees were at Mukhtar Shariff’s Burnsville house in the morning, taking photos as they searched the four-bedroom home for about three hours. A neighbor told the Star Tribune that FBI agents began their work about 8 a.m.

The FBI didn’t release any details about their ongoing investigation. According to other media reports, three other defendants’ homes were also searched Wednesday, though the Star Tribune couldn’t independently confirm that.

The four men are among five defendants convicted by a jury last week of defrauding the federal government of money intended to feed children in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two other defendants were acquitted.

The trial was the first one in a broader FBI-led case that has charged 70 people so far in Minnesota with stealing more than $250 million from federal food programs meant to feed low-income children after school and during the summer. It’s one of the largest pandemic-related fraud schemes in the country, prosecutors have said.

Of the 70 people charged, 18 have pleaded guilty, one died and one fled the country. Prosecutors have said they expect to file more charges.

The seven defendants on trial received about $40 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture funding for claiming to serve 18 million meals at food distribution sites across Minnesota, from Rochester and Owatonna to St. Cloud, in 2020 and 2021.

The five defendants found guilty of wire fraud conspiracy and other crimes have been in custody since last week, according to court documents, though Shariff’s attorneys filed a request Monday for him to be released, saying that his home hadn’t been searched by the FBI and there was no evidence showing that Shariff had any role in leaking the jurors’ names or in the attempted bribery.

The day before final closing arguments in the six-week trial, a woman dropped off a bag containing $120,000 in cash at one juror’s home and added that the juror would get more cash if she voted to acquit. The juror, who immediately reported the incident to police, was excused from serving.

The list of jurors’ names was briefly available to attorneys in the case during jury selection. Throughout the trial, jurors were identified only by number. A second juror was excused when she heard about the attempted bribery from a family member.

Afterward, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel sequestered the jury for four nights until they reached a verdict Friday, and she added security to the courtroom, detained defendants and confiscated their phones so they could be searched.

Shariff’s attorneys wrote in court documents that two juror lists went missing after jury selection, but the lists were numbered and not tied to what Shariff and his defense team received. They also argued that the 33-year-old married father of two young children isn’t a flight risk because he surrendered his passport and has been a U.S. citizen almost his whole life after immigrating from Somalia at age 5. Unlike other defendants, he was never arrested following the 2022 charges.

According to other media reports, FBI agents also were at Abdimajid Nur’s Shakopee home, Mohamed Ismail’s Savage home and Abdiaziz Farah’s Savage home on Wednesday. The FBI also searched Farah’s home last week, according to neighbors who witnessed it. It’s unclear if additional sites were or are part of the FBI investigation.

Prosecutors alleged Farah, the 35-year-old co-owner of Empire Cuisine and Market in Shakopee, was the ringleader of the scheme. Farah’s home was one of more than two dozen homes and businesses that the FBI raided in January 2022, seizing cars, jewelry and cash that prosecutors say were bought with federal money meant to fund meals for children in need.

An FBI agent testified during the trial about finding more than $64,000 in cash inside Farah’s home and cars, and confiscating four vehicles, including a new Tesla and Porsche. Because the house and luxury items were purchased with federal reimbursements meant to pay for meals, the home was subject to forfeiture along with a Burnsville townhouse he bought and two lakefront properties in Prior Lake he purchased to build a custom 8,000-square-foot house.

Farah, Nur and Ismail’s attorneys didn’t return messages seeking comment Wednesday.

All seven defendants on trial had ties to Farah’s businesses. Shariff, whose home wasn’t searched in 2022, was the only defendant to testify during the trial, saying he distributed meals to thousands of Bloomington families and played no role in preparing financial documents. Shariff’s attorneys declined to comment on the FBI search Wednesday.

There are more than three dozen other defendants tied to the St. Anthony nonprofit, who could go on trial later this year or next year, including Aimee Bock, executive director of Feeding Our Future. She has denied wrongdoing.

On Wednesday, prosecutors moved to delay a trial scheduled for August for two men tied to a Minneapolis food distribution site, citing the attempted bribery incident taking up all of the federal government’s resources. Prosecutors are investigating “around the clock” to track down the “unprecedented attack at the heart of the judicial system,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson wrote in court documents.