Jurors finally see evidence of food in Feeding Our Future trial, but eyewitness won’t verify sky-high meal counts

After weeks of scrutinizing meal count forms and bank records, jurors in the Feeding Our Future trial got their first glimpse Friday of some of the actual meals that were prepared by the accused fraudsters.

There were trays heaped with rice and chicken. There were trays full of mixed vegetables. And it wasn’t just a handful of meals. Jurors saw tables covered with dozens of steaming aluminum trays, each holding five or six meals, sometimes stacked seven deep.

The photographer who captured the images estimated there were more than 1,200 meals lining one of the tables at Safari Restaurant, a defunct Minneapolis eatery that shut down after its owners were accused of bilking the government out of tens of millions of dollars by claiming to deliver as many as 20,000 meals per day to needy children.

“Throughout this entire trial there have been witnesses that have taken the stand that have said it is impossible for Safari Restaurant to prepare that many meals — it is impossible for them to feed that many people,” said attorney Adrian Montez, who represents Safari co-owner Salim Said, who is on trial this month with Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock. “These videos demonstrate unequivocally that they were able to do that.”

Mohamed Liban, the freelance photographer who earned almost $200,000 for shooting the videos, refused to go that far when questioned on the witness stand Friday.

Though he compared the scene outside Safari Restaurant to the “Super Bowl” when it was time for parents to pick up meals, Liban admitted on cross-examination from prosecutors that he couldn’t confirm that thousands of meals were ever served at Safari or the other sites he visited that were controlled by Said and his business partners.

“I’m not going to be held responsible for that,” said Liban, who described himself as a “social media influencer” who was paid to advertise the availability of free meals at Safari and several affiliated restaurants. “I have nothing to do with these numbers.”

Bock, the founder of Feeding Our Future, is the accused ringleader of the $250 million pay-for-play scheme to steal federal reimbursements meant to fund meals for low-income children after school and during the summer. Instead, prosecutors say, defendants used the money to buy luxury homes, cars and other items to enrich themselves in one of the largest pandemic-related fraud schemes in the country.

Said allegedly earned $5.9 million in fraudulent proceeds, which he used to buy a $1.1 million home in Plymouth, two luxury vehicles and a part interest in $5 million worth of commercial property.

Liban was the first of three witnesses Said’s attorneys said they plan to call as they present their defense. Said is expected to testify Monday. Bock’s attorneys finished their portion of the case Friday, only calling Bock to testify.

Liban’s testimony came only after an extraordinary hearing in which he had to waive his right to defend himself from self-incrimination if he agreed to take the stand. During the hearing, prosecutors showed bank records that proved Liban received $142,000 from entities controlled by Said and his partners.

Liban received another $43,000 from a produce company controlled by Ladan Ali, the woman who allegedly tried to bribe a juror in the first Feeding Our Future trial last year with a bag full of $120,000 in cash. Ali pleaded guilty last fall to federal charges.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel, who is overseeing the case involving Said and Bock, warned Liban of the risks he was taking if he agreed to testify.

“I am saying you can’t refuse to answer a question just because you don’t want to answer it,” Brasel told Liban. “If you take the stand you are giving up your right to remain silent and you have to answer the questions.”

Liban was unfazed, even when he was told prosecutors could ask about his payments for shooting the videos. “I am going to answer everything,” he told Brasel.

Liban, who came to the U.S. in 2006 from his native Somalia, told jurors that he began visiting Safari well before the Somali restaurant began participating in the food program in 2020. He said the restaurant was popular and often hosted weddings with as many as 250 guests packed into an adjacent event center.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he said, Safari hired him to spread the word about the restaurant’s involvement in the meals program. He said he would visit the restaurant three or four times a week, often shooting video of scenes inside and outside the business. He said he would then post those videos to his Snapchat account as well as social media accounts controlled by other people, letting community members know where and when they could pick up food.

Liban said the messaging worked.

“There were cars lined up — sometimes they were bumper to bumper,” Liban testified. “The food is like nonstop, every day.”

It got so busy, Liban said, that the restaurant hired four off-duty police officers to help guide traffic when the meals were served.

But none of the videos showed those crowds, lead prosecutor Joe Thompson noted during his cross-examination. In fact, Thompson noted, there wasn’t a single child in any of the 20 to 30 videos shown to the jury, and the longest line of cars contained fewer than a dozen vehicles. There were also no photos of any police officers directing traffic.

When asked why there were no videos of kids or families collecting meals, Liban said: “Some people, they don’t allow to be videotaped. It is for their privacy.”

Liban said his work as a social media influencer ended when the federal investigation of Feeding Our Future went public in early 2022. After earning almost $200,000 in a single year, he is now driving for Uber. When he closed his business bank account in 2022, it was overdrawn by $902.

“Since food was over, I decided to close it,” Liban testified. “I am not without a job. But you know what, in America, accounts get overdrawn all the time. It can happen.”