MINNEAPOLIS — The man formerly appointed by the mayor of Minneapolis to chair its Housing Authority Board pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges related to the Feeding Our Future (FOF) fraud scheme that took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Forty-year-old Sharmarke Issa, of Edina, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in district court Wednesday. Prosecutors revealed Issa operated the scheme through the creation of his company, Minnesota's Somali Community and his role as manager of Wacan Restaurant LLC, the site of which operated through a FOF sponsorship.
Court documents said Issa received millions through fraudulent food vendors and suppliers, causing the Minnesota Department of Health and program sponsors to dole out more than $7.4 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
Prosecutors said Issa and his codefendants also operated other shell companies to launder money from the FOF scheme, allowing them to purchase personal assets, like real estate.
Issa was appointed as board chair to the city's Housing Authority in 2019 by Mayor Jacob Frey but resigned in the spring of 2022 over the fallout from the meal program scandal.
Federal officials said the five defendants got away with more than $25 million in misappropriated funds collectively, which they went on to use for things like vehicles, real estate and travel.
Issa's four codefendants, Farhiya Mohamud, Haji Osman Salad, Fahad Nur and Anab Artan Awad are scheduled to go on trial for their respective roles in November, but sources tell KARE 11's Lou Raguse both Abdi and Salad are also expected to enter guilty pleas later this week.
Earlier this month, former Feeding Our Future Executive Director Aimee Bock — accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks from people wanting to operate fraudulent meal sites for kids under the umbrella of FOF during the pandemic — argued in court that her case should be dismissed.
According to previous reporting from Raguse, the judge will rule on those motions before Nov. 1 and the trial is scheduled for February 2025.
