A nonprofit founded by a Minneapolis City Council member took center stage during testimony Tuesday morning in the ongoing trial of Feeding Our Future CEO Aimee Bock.
That nonprofit, Stigma Free International, was formed by Jamal Osman and three others in August 2019 and essentially did nothing for the first year of its existence, U.S. Postal Inspector John Western told the jury.
It had no employees and its bank account, controlled by Osman, “sat there with an initial balance,” Western explained. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson displayed account records showing the only activity on the account was a $5 “analysis service charge” for months in a row. The organization “appeared to operate as a shell company,” Western said.
But in January 2021, $1.5 million that “came from Feeding Our Future checks” was deposited into the account, Western said. Those checks were signed by Bock.
Just a few months earlier, in October 2020, Osman handed over control of his organization to a new group of owners who are accused of using it to defraud the federal child nutrition programs, according to Western’s testimony.
Prosecutors showed the jury Osman’s resignation letter, which said: “My family commitments and work schedule have made it impossible to give the board the time it requires to be truly effective in my position. I have seen growth during the time that I have served and am confident you will continue to grow this amazing organization in my absence.”
“Was there any growth?” Thompson asked.
“Certainly not in the bank account,” Western replied.
Prosecutors also explained how Abdi Salah, a defendant in the case who pleaded guilty last month, helped facilitate the transfer. Salah previously worked as a policy aide for DFL Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and Salah’s brother, Abdulkadir Salah, was a co-owner of Safari Restaurant with Salim Said, who is on trial with Bock. Abdulkadir Salah has also pleaded guilty.
Ahmed Artan, another defendant in the case, was named the new president of Stigma Free International.
“Abdulkadir Salah and [Salim] Said, along with other defendants, obtained a non-profit entity, Stigma-Free International, for use in carrying out the fraud,” prosecutors wrote in a trial brief.
Osman, a Democrat elected to the Minneapolis City Council in August 2020, has not been charged in the case. He did not respond to a request for comment.
After being acquired from Osman, Stigma Free was used to start meal sites in Willmar, Mankato, Waite Park, St. Cloud, and St. Paul under Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship.
Bock’s organization acted as a sponsor for food distribution sites across the state and allegedly accepted kickbacks in exchange. The participants in the $250 million scheme are accused of asking for millions of dollars in reimbursements from the government for meals they never served—meals that were supposed to go to children during the pandemic. In Minnesota, the federal nutrition programs are administered by the state Department of Education.
In court Tuesday, Thompson walked the jury through meal count forms submitted by Stigma Free International’s Willmar site, which claimed to be feeding 3,000 lunches a day, every day, out of a small storefront, with little variation.
“How many students attend the Willmar public school district?” Thompson asked Western.
“About 4,000.”
That means the site was claiming to feed about 75% of the total enrollment in the Willmar school district.
Western was then asked to describe the Willmar site’s meal count forms. “Inflated, fraudulent, unbelievable,” he said.
“Between November 2020 to November 2021, these co-conspirators falsely claimed to have served approximately 1.6 million meals at the Stigma-Free Willmar site,” prosecutors said in court documents. “The co-conspirators received more than $4 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds based on these claims.”
The trial is expected to last through February.
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.
