Thursday May 30, 2024
by Joey Peters
Mukhtar Shariff’s attorneys presented evidence that his company purchased $1.5 million worth of food, and called witnesses from the Dar Al Farooq Center who say they saw food distributed at the Bloomington mosque.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel (left) presides over jury selection on April 22, 2024, for the first Feeding Our Future trial as several defendants and their attorneys observe. Credit: Cedric Hohnstadt
Defendant Mukhtar Shariff testified Wednesday afternoon in the first Feeding Our Future trial, answering questions about his background and entrepreneurial experience.
Muktar, 33, is charged with allegedly stealing more than $1.3 million of federal funds designated to feed underserved children. He is the only defendant who chose to testify in a joint trial featuring seven defendants.
During his testimony, which began about 4:15 p.m., Mukhtar spoke about living in a refugee camp in Kenya as a young boy, immigrating to the United States with his family and moving frequently across the country as a child. He also talked about selling President Barack Obama T-shirts as a high schooler, and working as a software engineer for Microsoft before starting his own software consulting company in 2018.
“I’ve always wanted to do business in entrepreneurship,” Mukhtar testified. “I always did it on the side since high school.”
Court recessed for the day before Mukhtar could be questioned about the allegations against him involving federal Child Nutrition Program money. He is scheduled to resume testimony at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Mukhtar’s attorneys presented evidence and called nine witnesses Wednesday to support their argument that he operated a legitimate business that fed underserved children using federal funding.
Mukhtar’s former company, Afrique Hospitality Group, purchased more than $1.5 million worth of food from a wholesaler throughout 2021 and the first month of 2022, according to invoices presented Wednesday.
Witnesses called on the first day of defense testimony included leaders of a Bloomington mosque and a few worshippers who testified that they saw food being distributed at the mosque and a school. The testimony was meant to counter prosecutors’ allegations that Afrique Hospitality Group was a shell company that fraudulently obtained federal Child Nutrition Program.
Mukhtar is one of seven defendants being jointly tried on a total of 41 criminal charges, including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering. They are collectively accused of stealing $41 million from the federal government.
Mukthar is the only defendant calling witnesses in the case; lawyers for the other six defendants told U.S. District Judge Brasel Tuesday that they plan to rest their cases after Mukhtar’s attorneys rest his case.
Afrique was ‘largest’ food client
Derek Czapiewski, a sales accountant with the multinational food wholesaler Sysco, testified that he sold food to many clients that worked with the Child Nutrition Program, and that Afrique was a significant buyer compared to others.
“In terms of customers I had, that’s the largest one,” Czapiewski said.
Prosecutors have argued throughout trial that the defendants only served 10 percent of the meals they were reimbursed for.
The case is part of a larger investigation into the alleged theft of $250 million from the Child Nutrition Program. Seventy defendants have been charged in what has become known as the Feeding Our Future case; 18 have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
The alleged fraud involved the Minnesota Department of Education distributing federal funds to sponsor organizations like Feeding Our Future. The sponsor organizations then dispersed those funds to food vendors and food sites, which were supposed to provide ready-to-eat meals to local children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several organizations in the money chain reported serving thousands more meals than they actually did—or simply never served any meals at all—in order to receive more federal money, according to prosecutors. Those funds were then allegedly passed through various shell companies before being pocketed by the perpetrators, who used the money to buy cars, property, and other items.
Mosque leaders saw food distribution
Prosecutors spent weeks presenting evidence at trial that little-to-no meals were served at multiple food sites that claimed to feed thousands of children each day.
Mukhtar’s attorneys called witnesses from a Bloomington mosque—the largest food site in the case being tried—to refute the allegations. Evidence presented by prosecutors earlier at trial showed that a company known as Empire Cuisine wrote checks to Afrique for food, and that Empire then claimed to supply the food to ThinkTechAct, which ran a food site at the mosque, the Dar Al Farooq Center. Empire’s co-owners are being tried alongside Mukhtar.
Mukhtar is a member of Dar Al Farooq, and was recruited by other people there to start Afrique, his attorney Frederick Goetz said in opening statements last month.
Imam Abdirahman Kariye with Dar Al Farooq and the organization’s executive director, Khalid Omar, testified that they saw food being distributed at the mosque during the pandemic.
Imam Abdirahman testified that he was good friends with Mukthar, and that Dar Al Farooq is one of the state’s largest mosques. Dar Al Farooq regularly sees 2,000 workshippers for Friday afternoon prayers, and also offers a weekend religious school for children. Imam Abdirahman said he saw a truck delivering food to several families in the mosque parking lot on most days he was at the mosque.
Prosecutors showed Imam Abdirahman the number of meals ThinkTechAct Foundation claimed to serve in the summer of 2021 when he started as an imam at the mosque. The foundation, which was owned and operated by a different defendant in the case who is not part of the current trial, ran the food site at the mosque. ThinkTechAct claimed to serve 3,500 meals almost every day for several months.
When asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Jacobs if the numbers looked reasonable, Imam Abdirahman replied yes.
“If you told me 3,500 people were being served, I would believe it,” he testified under cross-examination.
Under questioning by Mukhtar’s attorneys and prosecutors, Khalid and two members of the mosque testified that they saw meals being distributed at the mosque every Saturday.
Defense attorneys showed Khalid a summary of the total number of meals—1.9 million—that ThinkTechAct reported serving at Dar Al Farooq and Oak Grove Middle School in Bloomington between 2020 and 2021. Meals distributed at Dar Al Farooq and Oak Grove Middle School were linked to the ThinkTechAct.
“It seems reasonable,” Khalid said. “I feel that way because I saw food delivered at both locations—I saw food being given out.”
Abdikadir Haji, dean of students at Success Academy, a charter school located in Dar Al Farooq, testified that he saw food delivered every Saturday, and that he received the food himself.
“Did that food help your family?” Kaitlyn Falk, one of Mukhtar’s defense attorneys, asked Abdikadir.
“Absolutely,” Abdikadir said.
Amina Adan, a mother of four and a community member at Dar Al Farooq, testified that she picked up four bags of food every Saturday at the mosque.
All of the witnesses associated with Dar Al Farooq said they were testifying about their observations, and were not officially involved in the food distribution and didn’t take count of how many meals were being handed out.
Bloomington event center
Earlier Wednesday, Mukhtar’s attorneys called Paul Vaaler, a professor from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Vaaler testified about business practices in the East African immigrant community, and said that many refugees don’t trust governments because they’ve often fled a situation where their home government was more “of a grabbing hand than a giving hand.”
Many immigrants become entrepreneurs because they are unfamiliar with the culture in the United States, and employers are often unfamiliar with their qualifications, he testified.
Many newly arrived immigrants deal in practices of “transactional informality,” said Vaaler, who compared the practice to a garage sale. The two are similar, Vaaler said, because the transactions are made without government or bank oversight.
“When we buy things, there may be a preference for doing it outside of the gaze of the government,” Vaaler said of some immigrant entrepreneurs.
Vaaler testified under cross-examination by the prosecution that he did not study the charges in the case, and was not testifying or giving an opinion on them.
Yusuf Ali, the owner of Zawadi, an East African event center in Bloomington, also testified Wednesday. Zawadi opened its doors last fall under ownership unrelated to defendants in the trial. However, Mukhtar originally planned to open the center as Afrique under the auspices of his company.
FBI forensic accountants testified earlier at trial that $900,000 of stolen federal food-aid money was spent on remodeling the building for Afrique before it became Zawadi.
Yusuf testified that he became involved with Zawadi last summer after the Afrique project stalled because of its ties to the Feeding Our Future case. Yusuf said he invested $500,000 in the project last summer and took it over. Zawadi now operates as a restaurant, cafe, coworking space, indoor playground, prayer area, and event space.
Yusuf stressed in his testimony that Zawadi is a different business from Afrique.
“Is Zawadi a real business?” Falk asked.
“Yes,” Yusuf replied.
Yusuf testified under cross-examination that before he became an investor in Zawadi, he knew Mukhtar. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Walcker asked Yusuf if, when he became involved with Zawadi, he knew that Mukhtar was indicted in the Feeding Our Future case.
“We all knew,” Yusuf said.
At another point, Walcker asked Yusuf if he recalled telling Mukhtar’s attorney during preparation for trial that the event center’s name changed from Afrique to Zawadi because of negative publicity in the case.
“I don’t,” Yusuf said, “but the main reason is it’s a new business. We came and invested our own money, changed the concept and made it operational. It’s not the same business, I would strongly argue—it’s a different business.”
Who’s on trial?
The defendants on trial are facing a total of 41 charges, including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering. They mostly worked for businesses that used Partners in Quality Care as a sponsor.
The defendants are:
- Abdiaziz Farah co-owned Empire Cuisine and Market. Federal prosecutors allege that the Shakopee-based deli and grocery store posed as a meals provider for several food sites, and defrauded the government out of $28 million. Abdiaziz allegedly pocketed more than $8 million for himself. He is also charged with lying on an application to renew his passport after federal agents seized his passport as part of their investigation.
- Mohamed Jama Ismail co-owned Empire Cuisine and Market. Mohamed is Abdiziz’s uncle. He is also owner of MZ Market LLC, which prosecutors allege was a shell company used to launder the stolen money. Mohamed allegedly pocketed $2.2 million. He previously pleaded guilty to passport fraud.
- Abdimajid Nur allegedly created a shell company, Nur Consulting, and laundered stolen money from Empire Cuisine and ThinkTechAct, other alleged shell companies. Abdimajid, who was 21 at the time of his indictment, allegedly pocketed $900,000.
- Hayat Nur allegedly submitted fake meal counts and invoices served at food sites. Court documents identify Hayat as Abdimajid’s sister. Hayat allegedly pocketed $30,000.
- Said Farah co-owned Bushra Wholesalers, which allegedly laundered money by claiming to be a food vendor that provided meals to food sites that then reportedly served children. Court documents identify Said as Abdiaziz’s brother. Said allegedly pocketed more than $1 million.
- Abdiwahab Aftin co-owned Bushra Wholesalers, and allegedly pocketed $435,000.
- Mukhtar Shariff served as CEO of Afrique Hospitality Group, and allegedly used the company to launder stolen money. He allegedly pocketed more than $1.3 million.