(Center of the American Experiment) — Two defendants in the Feeding Our Future case were also arrested for passport fraud as they tried to flee the country. Both of them have been released from jail.
Abdiaziz Farah and Mohamed Jama Ismail are the co-owners of Empire Cuisine and Market in Shakopee.
They are defendants Nos. 15 and 16 in the case. They are the two lead defendants in the second indictment in the case.
Both were subjects of the third search warrant in the case and both of their homes were searched by the FBI in January 2022. During those searches, the passport of each man was seized.
Using false statements, both men applied for and received new passports, and each made an attempt to flee the country. Both were arrested and held in jail, without bail, pending trial.
Ismail pled guilty to the passport fraud charge and has now served his very brief sentence. As of yesterday, he was released from federal custody, as KARE-11’s Lou Raguse reported. There are monitoring and home detention conditions attached to his release.
His business partner, Farah, has not yet gone to trial on his passport fraud case. Farah is also a subject of a lawsuit filed yesterday by the state’s attorney general.
Farah was released from federal custody late last month. Similar conditions were attached to his release.
Bill Glahn
Bill Glahn is an Adjunct Policy Fellow with Center of the American Experiment.
