Feeding Our Future: defendant who tampered with witness pleads guilty
Feeding Our Future trial: Tracking the money
An FBI forensic accountant took the stand Thursday in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme trial. FOX 9's Rob Olson has the latest.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The 37th defendant to plead guilty in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme will face an enhanced sentence after he tried to tamper with a witness about to testify in trial.
37th Feeding Our Future defendant pleads guilty to wire fraud
What they're saying:
According to the United States Attorney's Office, 33-year-old Abdinasir Mahamed Abshir pleaded guilty to wire fraud for his role in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.
The backstory:
Court documents say that from April 2020 to January 2022, Abshir claimed he was running a child nutrition site in Mankato called Stigma-Free Mankato. The site was under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future.
Abshir claimed Stigma-Free Mankato was serving 3,000 meals to children a day from J's Sambusa, a restaurant in North Mankato.
In addition, Abshir also created a shell company called Horseed Management, claiming it was a meal vendor for his child nutrition site in Mankato. Abshir had claimed to have served about 1.6 million children between November 2020 to November 2021, through Stigma-Free Mankato.
Abshir submitted fake meal counts, invoices and attendance rosters, while also transferring millions of dollars from Horseed Management to himself and another shell company called Calikamin Enterprise.
Abshir used the money to buy a 2021 Range Ranger, which has now been seized.
Court documents say Abshir paid more than $100,000 in bribes and kickbacks from Horseed Management to Abdikerm Eidleh, who was a Feeding Our Future employee. He did this in exchange for sponsoring Stigma-Free Mankato's participation in the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
Stigma-Free Mankato received, in total, over $5.4 million in payments from Feeding Our Future.
Witness tampering
Dig deeper:
Abshir attempted to tamper with a witness on Feb. 18, 2025 during the trial of alleged ringleaders Aimee Bock and Salim Said.
In the hallway outside the courtroom of the trial, Abshir approached a witness who was about to testify in the trial. When he learned the witness was going to testify that day, he asked the witness to come with him to the bathroom to have a conversation.
Abshir ped guilty Friday, and due to the attempted tampering of the witness, he will receive an enhanced sentence.
His sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.