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A defense witness testified at the Feeding Our Future trial on Friday that he saw large amounts of food being prepared at a Minneapolis restaurant that prosecutors say was a major player in a $250 million scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during COVID. 

Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock, 44, is charged with wire fraud and federal programs bribery for allegedly leading the conspiracy. On trial with her is Salim Said, 36, who was a co-owner of Safari Restaurant along Lake Street in Minneapolis. Said faces similar charges in addition to five counts of money laundering.

Bock’s defense attorney Kenneth Udoibok rested his case Friday after Bock faced extensive 

Adrian Montez, one of Said’s defense attorneys, called former Safari employee Mohamed M. Liban to the witness stand and showed jurors video that Liban, 43, recorded in late 2020 of food that had been prepared and packaged at the restaurant. 

Speaking through a Somali interpreter, Liban said that Safari hired him to produce videos to advertise the restaurant’s meal giveaways funded by the federal food programs. 

“When I let people know this is the time to come over, the whole place gets packed like it’s a Super Bowl event going on,” Liban said.

Montez played clips showing aluminum trays packed with rice, chicken, and vegetables ready for distribution. One video showed a table piled with sealed food containers that Montez said contained an estimated 1,225 meals.  

Liban testified that demand for the food was so high that police were required to handle traffic, and the meals would be gone in two hours. 

None of the videos, noted prosecutor Joe Thompson on cross examination, showed anyone picking up the food, nor did they show lines of cars outside the restaurant. 

Prosecutors have said throughout the trial that Safari was a key player in the scheme and collected $16 million by operating a fake meal distribution site of its own and serving as a phony vendor to others around Minnesota. 

Thompson showed jurors handwritten meal count sheets from January 2021 that Safari’s owners used to request reimbursement for 6,000 breakfasts and 6,000 lunches served each day at the restaurant. 

Previous witnesses testified that such an amount of food would have been far beyond the capacity of a business of Safari’s size, and approaching that quantity would require a commercial kitchen on par with that of a large urban school district. 

Thompson asked Liban if he thought the meal counts were accurate.

“I know the amount of food is a lot, the exact number I can’t tell you,” Liban replied. “I’m a social media influencer. I have nothing to do with these numbers.”

Thompson also confronted Liban with checks and bank records showing that he received nearly $200,000 from Said and others charged in the case and spent some of the money on a Toyota Rav4 and a Tundra. 

“You think people are working for free?” Liban responded. “I did these ads to receive money, so that I can do whatever I want with my money.”

Said confirmed with Judge Nancy Brasel on Friday that he, like Bock, would also testify in his own defense, which would require him to answer questions from the prosecution.

Closing arguments, which had been set for Monday, have been pushed to Tuesday. 

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A defense witness testified at the Feeding Our Future trial on Friday that he saw large amounts of food being prepared at a Minneapolis restaurant that prosecutors say was a major player in a $250 million scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during COVID.

The outside view of a restaurant with red awnings.

Feeding Our Future defense witness: ‘You think people are working for free?’

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