Ahead of Feeding Our Future trial next week, two brothers enter surprise guilty pleas

Just days before a jury trial was set to begin in the next Feeding Our Future case, two of the four defendants pleaded guilty in federal court, more than two years after they were charged.

Abdulkadir Nur Salah, 38, the owner of Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, one of the biggest meal distributors in the alleged fraud scheme, and Abdi Nur Salah, 37, a former aide to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, pleaded guilty Tuesday, each to one count of wire fraud.

Abdulkadir Nur Salah admitted he was directly connected to Feeding Our Future executive director Aimee Bock, who remains set to stand trial starting Monday along with Salim Said, another owner of Safari Restaurant.

In all, 70 people have been charged in the sprawling $250 million fraud scheme, which prosecutors have said is one of the nation's largest pandemic-related fraud cases. Of them, 26 have pleaded guilty, five were convicted by a jury last year, and two were acquitted by the jury in the case, which centers around federally funded meals to low-income kids after school and during the summer.

All other criminal charges against the Nur Salah brothers were dropped. Abdulkadir Nur Salah's potential prison sentence could be between 9 and 11½ years. Abdi Nur Salah could receive between 21 and 27 months in prison.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz, who presided over the hearing, noted that U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel, who is overseeing the case but is currently out of the country, could sentence them to longer or shorter sentences.

The brothers were facing up to 20 years in prison.

As Abdulkadir Nur Salah entered his plea, he admitted that Bock received kickbacks from the program and that he made those payments to her. He entered his guilty plea with his attorney, Surya Saxena, on his left and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Ebert on his right.

Bock has denied the allegations.

Abdulkadir Nur Salah's wire fraud charge stemmed from an email he sent in 2021 that said he and his co-defendants were entitled to $4.2 million for serving more than 800,000 meals in November 2021.

Ebert asked Abdulkadir Nur Salah if he knew the meal counts were false, that the invoices were false and that he would be paid money he was not entitled to because of that email. He quietly answered "correct" to all Ebert's questions.

Ebert laid out several details of the investigation into Abdulkadir Nur Salah's assets, including that the government has seized more than $1.2 million from three bank accounts associated with him and Safari Restaurant along with two properties on Park Avenue in south Minneapolis and another property in Ohio.

In total, Abdulkadir and his co-defendants were accused of defrauding the government of $47 million. The plea deal calls for a money judgment against Abdulkadir Nur Salah of $5.5 million; the seized property and money will go toward that restitution.

As Abdi Nur Salah entered his guilty plea, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson noted that he was a "minor participant" in the scheme who received a little over $1 million in federal child nutrition funds and set up shell companies to purchase real estate and pay personal expenses.

Abdi Nur Salah's attorney, Brian Toder, gave a brief statement to reporters and noted that his client's limited involvement in the scheme was evident in the sentence that was agreed upon. Both brothers had no criminal record, which played a role in the possible lower prison sentences.

Abdi Nur Salah's wire fraud count stemmed from an email sent in 2020 that involved Stigma-Free International, a company that set up fake food distribution sites in Willmar, Mankato, Waite Park and St. Paul. Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman and his wife also incorporated Stigma-Free in 2019, but Osman told the Minnesota Star Tribune in March 2022 that he "gave up" his role in the nonprofit in 2020 before the organization enrolled in the meal program.

Frey, who fired Abdi Nur Salah after the charges came to light, said in a statement from a spokesperson that the guilty plea "marks an important step toward accountability following one of the most deep and offensive betrayals of public trust in our state's history."

Abdi Nur Salah will have to pay more than $1 million in restitution. Part of that will come from his ownership stake in several properties his shell companies purchased, including what used to be Kelly's 19th Hole, a longstanding bar and restaurant in Brooklyn Park.

The brothers are both Somali and not U.S. citizens, although Abdi Nur Salah noted he had permanent resident status. As part of the plea agreement, Schiltz said both men could be deported and excluded from entering the U.S. and might not be able to apply for citizenship in the future.

Among the 70 people charged, one died and five others have reportedly fled the country. Another defendant, Mohamed Muse Noor, is expected to enter a guilty plea Thursday.

Prosecutors have alleged defendants took advantage of lax rules and monitoring of the meal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, using millions of dollars in U.S. Department of Agriculture reimbursements for luxury personal expenses instead of feeding kids. They say co-conspirators used phony invoices and made-up children's names to inflate the number of meals they claimed to serve.

As Thompson read the plea agreement to Abdi Nur Salah in court Tuesday he noted that the scheme included fake meal count sheets, fake invoices and fake attendance rosters that featured thousands of names of children in need receiving meals.

"But in reality the rosters were fraudulent and the names on them were fake," Thompson said.

Moments later, Abdi entered his guilty plea and left the courtroom to await sentencing.