MINNEAPOLIS — Shafi'i Tutoring & Homework Help Center in Hopkins existed before the pandemic.
But the nonprofit's president, Khadra Abdi, admits that in 2021 with the help of Aimee Bock, the executive director of Feeding our Future, she registered the after-school center as a meal site and claimed to serve 1.1 million meals to needy children.
On Friday, Abdi pleaded guilty to wire fraud, admitting to stealing $3.4 million in federal child nutrition money.
She admitted claiming to receive food from Sambusa King, located in the same Hopkins strip, which was owned at the time by Abdulkadir Awale. He pleaded guilty last year, admitting he stole more than $2 million.
The man at the top of this particular indictment is Haji Salad, whose Facebook page shows video from 2021 giving bags of groceries to a number of cars lined up in Brooklyn Park.
But yesterday he pleaded guilty, admitting he greatly inflated the numbers, claiming he was the food vendor for 15 million meals, good for $11.4 million he spent on real estate and luxury vehicles.
The other defendant to plead guilty this week is Sharmarke Issa, who was appointed by Mayor Jacob Frey as the board chair of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority in 2019.
Issa admits taking $3.5 million, claiming to have served 2.3 million phony meals.
Late Friday, one of the two remaining defendants in this group scheduled a hearing to plead guilty at the end of the month. That just leaves one defendant scheduled for trial in November, which makes a potential plea deal more likely.
After that, the next Feeding our Future fraud trial on the calendar is the big one in February featuring Aimee Bock.