Abdi Nur Salah, a former aide to Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, was sentenced last week to nearly three years in federal prison for his role in Minnesota’s sprawling Feeding Our Future scandal.
The scandal takes its name from the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which sponsored meal sites throughout the state where free food for children was purportedly served. In reality, the defendants submitted fraudulent claims for reimbursement from the federal government for meals that were never actually served.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Salah and his co-conspirators operated an organization called Stigma-Free International under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. As Alpha News previously reported, Stigma-Free International was originally formed by Democratic Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman and others before Osman transferred it to a new group of owners. Osman has not been charged in the fraud scandal.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Salah acquired Stigma-Free International in October 2020 and then transferred ownership to his co-conspirators who used it to open a number of new meal sites throughout the state.
The co-conspirators fraudulently claimed to have served nearly five million meals to children at their sites from November 2020 to November 2021 using fake attendance rosters and invoices, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Based on the fraudulent claims, Feeding Our Future paid out over $10 million in federal reimbursements to the Stigma-Free International sites, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Additionally, Salah created multiple shell companies to launder his share of the fraud proceeds — approximately $1.6 million. He used the money to purchase homes and businesses.
“Abdi Nur Salah and his co-conspirators used taxpayer money meant to support hungry children to buy themselves a life of luxury,” said FBI Minneapolis Field Office Acting Special Agent in Charge Benni Jonsson.
“In defrauding the Federal Child Nutrition Program of more than $1.6 million, what this defendant bought himself is a federal prison sentence. We will continue to bring fraudsters to justice and defend the American taxpayer.”
Salah was arrested twice over the summer on unrelated drug and DWI offenses.
He pleaded guilty in January 2025 in the Feeding Our Future case and is the 31st defendant to be sentenced.
“This defendant decided to steal funds meant for vulnerable children,” U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said in a Thursday statement. “Today’s sentence represents my office’s unwavering commitment to holding accountable those who defraud the American taxpayers.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
