Feeding Our Future trial: Muna Wais Fidhin found guilty on all counts
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Muna Wais Fidhin, a Burnsville businesswoman accused of submitting approximately $1 million in fraudulent meal claims through two businesses, was found guilty by a jury Wednesday of nine counts of wire fraud, bribery and money laundering.
Muna Wais Fidhin found guilty
What we know:
A federal jury found Fidhin, the 75th defendant charged in the sprawling Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, guilty on all counts. Fidhin faced a total of nine charges including three counts of wire fraud, four counts of federal programs bribery, and two counts of money laundering.
The government alleges that Fidhin enrolled two Burnsville businesses, M5 Café and M5 Care, in the Federal Child Nutrition Program, fraudulently inflating her numbers to claim more than 300,000 meals served. Prosecutors state she billed the government for approximately $1 million, paying approximately $27,000 in kickbacks to Feeding Our Future to ensure her claims were submitted and sponsored.
'Not a fraud'
Dig deeper:
During closing arguments Wednesday morning, defense attorney Steve Schleicher presented Fidhin as a hardworking Somali immigrant and mother who was swept up in a chaotic program during the height of the pandemic. He told the jury, "She is a person, not a fraud," arguing that Fidhin acted in good faith but "trusted the wrong people."
Schleicher minimized the logistics of serving 500 meals, noting that meal sizes were small enough that 500 meals could fit into 20 grocery bags. He pointed the finger squarely at Feeding Our Future and its leadership, asserting that any instructions Fidhin received came directly from them.
Schleicher also attacked the government's cooperating witnesses as "professional liars" who secured plea deals and were simply telling prosecutors what they wanted to hear.
The other side:
In a sharp rebuttal, federal prosecutor Austin Bowyer urged the jury to use their common sense when scrutinizing fake rosters of children, fabricated invoices and inflated meal reimbursement submissions.
Addressing the challenge of proving that 500 meals a day were not served, Bowyer pointed to witnesses – including a pharmacist near the M5 Café site – who testified they never saw the volume of children or food claimed by Fidhin before federal authorities raided Feeding our Future and shut down the scheme.
"You do not act in good faith with grossly inaccurate meal claims," Bowyer told the jury. "That is not an accident, that is a lie."
Bowyer concluded the government’s case by noting that as the federal investigation closed in on her, Fidhin transferred her house to her daughter—an act Bowyer described not as estate planning, but as greed.
"In the end, she knew the scheme," Bowyer stated. "She followed the pattern... and pocketed more than half a million dollars."
Fidhin released until sentencing
What's next:
The federal government made a motion to have Fidhin be placed in custody until her sentencing. That motion was denied by a judge, and she'll be released on electronic home monitoring. A sentencing date has not yet been set.