Feeding Our Future defendant pleads guilty days before trial
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A defendant in the Feeding Our Future case on Friday pleaded guilty just four days before jury selection was set to begin in his trial.
Abdiwahab Ahmed Mohamud admitted to charges of money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud. Federal prosecutors are expected to dismiss five additional counts when he’s sentenced.
Mohamud’s plea agreement calls for a prison term of 11 to 14 years, but the ultimate decision is up to U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel.
Prosecutors say that Mohamud, 35, was “chief document fabricator” at S&S Catering, a Lake Street business that siphoned $17 million from taxpayers during the pandemic after submitting phony invoices and and meal count forms to support bogus reimbursement requests from the Summer Food Service Program and Child and Adult Care Food Program.
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On Monday Brasel ordered Mohamud jailed after a cooperating defendant told investigators that Mohamed tried to strong-arm her not to testify against him. While prosecutors never charged Mohamud with the separate crime of witness tampering, he admitted that he spoke to the cooperator in violation of federal law and his pretrial release conditions.
Qamar Hassan, the owner of S&S, pleaded guilty in 2023 and testified for the government in February at the trial of Feeding Our Future Founder Aimee Bock and restaurant owner Salim Said. Prosecutors said that they had expected Hassan to be a key witness at Mohamud’s trial.
Mohamud was among the first four dozen people charged in September 2022 in a case that has since grown to include 76 defendants.
He's the 50th defendant to plead guilty. Seven others were convicted at two trials, including Bock and Said, who are being held in the Sherburne County Jail ahead of yet-to-be-scheduled sentencing hearings.
