The director and imam of Dar Al Farouk Mosque in Bloomington testified Wednesday that they have witnessed long lines of people receiving food bags at the mosque during the pandemic and that they believe the Feeding Our Future defendants' claims that they have distributed thousands of meals a day.
But staff at a school inside the mosque and a mother who lives nearby and received food on Saturday disputed the witnesses' accounts, saying they only saw the food being distributed on Saturdays, not every day.
All of the witnesses were called to testify by lawyers for Mukhtar Mohammed Sharif, one of seven defendants indicted in a Shakopee-based scheme to fraudulently refund $49 million in federal funds by grossly inflating the number of meals served. Prosecutors say they used the refunds to buy luxury cars, homes, jewelry and overseas real estate, but very little food.
Six of the seven defendants told the court they chose not to call witnesses and testify in their own defence. Sharif began testifying on Wednesday about his background and his travels to the US and Minnesota. Testimony will continue on Thursday.
The Dar Al Farouk mosque is one of 50 locations across the state where defendants are accused of distributing 18.8 million meals as part of a federal child nutrition program. The program's regulations, which were supposed to be enforced by the state Department of Education, were relaxed during the pandemic to speed up food delivery.
The mosque's director, Khalid Omar, and imam Abdirahman Karieh said they saw long lines of cars waiting to receive bags of food. Omar said he didn't know exactly how many people got food, but he estimated it was several thousand a day.
Kariye, who has been friends with Mukhtar Mohammed Sharif for more than a decade and traveled abroad frequently, said he believes up to 3,500 people per day could have been fed, based on what he saw when he began serving as imam in June 2021. He said many of the mosque's members do not have low-income jobs, which leads to widespread food insecurity.
Amina Adan, who lives near the mosque and knew Sharif as part of the mosque community, said she received food on Saturday but did not know if people received it on other days.
Abdikadir Haji, president of Success Academy, a charter school housed within the mosque, testified that he saw food being distributed from trucks on Saturday, but only on Saturday.
Nonprofits affiliated with the defendants claim they provided 2,000 meals daily in January 2021, a number that grew to more than 3,500 meals daily in November 2021. The FBI searched their homes and offices in January 2022, announced a federal investigation, froze their accounts, and suspended state payments to the defendants.
Some jurors appeared confused when lawyers for the six other defendants said they would wrap up their arguments without calling witnesses, as some had repeatedly said they would call witnesses to show photos and videos of large groups eating meals. Instead, they presented evidence of food rationing while cross-examining prosecution witnesses.
As Sharif took the stand Wednesday, most jurors grabbed pen and paper and began taking notes. The trial adjourned after Sharif testified about immigrating to the United States from Somalia as a boy, growing up on the East Coast and his various jobs as a software engineer. He will continue testifying on Thursday, along with another witness. Closing arguments are due Friday, and the jury could reach a verdict on Monday.
Professor talks about the difference in how Somalis do business
On Wednesday, jurors also heard from a University of Minnesota professor who said East African immigrants often conduct business in less formal ways and send badly needed funds back home.
Professor Paul Martin Bahler, who teaches at the University's business and law schools, was hired by the defense lawyers to provide his expertise on diaspora business. Bahler explained why many East Africans set up multiple limited liability companies, hire each other as consultants, and send money overseas. In addition to the seven defendants currently on trial, 63 more people, most of Somali origin, have been charged. Eighteen have pleaded guilty.
The white-haired professor, gentle and soft-spoken, lectured the jury about Minnesota's history of welcoming immigrants, from Vietnam and Liberia to Somalia and Ukraine.
Bahler said he was interested in studying East Africans in part because the Carlson School of Management borders the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, which has long welcomed new Americans, including his own Norwegian ancestry.
“I'm fourth-generation Norwegian, and my ancestors probably lived in this same Cedar-Riverside community 100 years ago,” Baer said, adding that the nearby Norway Memorial Church (Mindekirken) still holds services in Norwegian.
In Somalia, civil war and the resulting breakdown of institutions and lack of a secure banking system has led to a more informal economy based on verbal contracts. “Words are promises and breaches of trust lead to expulsion,” he said.
Norwegian immigrants also had an aversion to insurance, which led to the creation of a fraternal organization called the Lutheran Brotherhood, Baer said.
For refugees, their governments are often not so much a helping hand as a “grabbing hand” dredging up money from their bank accounts during budget deficits, he said. As a result, “they may prefer to do (business) outside of government oversight.”
Immigrants tend to be entrepreneurial, with about a quarter of all self-started businesses founded by immigrants, he said. This is because immigrants may have a harder time finding work in their new location and because entrepreneurship is often required to survive in their home countries. East African immigrants often run multiple businesses or set up limited liability companies long before they start a business.
Jurors took eager notes as he explained that “cash is king,” as many Somalis are reluctant to use credit cards or finance purchases because Islamic law prohibits lending that is considered usury. Instead, they often enter into profit-sharing agreements or leases.
Bahler explained that immigrants often send money overseas to friends, family and business partners – in this case for alleged money laundering. These “remittances” far exceed any other form of foreign aid, Bahler said.
“This is the best foreign aid in the world because it doesn't go through governments,” he said.
It is also not uncommon for migrants to repay brokers by couriering cash in suitcases or with goods such as rice, shoes, or bicycles. It is also common for migrants to go to community centers to find lawyers, accountants, and “successful people” who they can hire as consultants and advisors.
Some of the defendants formed LLCs and charged each other fees as consultants.
But Barrer did not analyze the evidence in the Feeding Our Future case, and under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson, he said those small transfers were not the same as sending more than $1 million for the construction of apartments in Kenya that prosecutors allege occurred in the case.
Barr also acknowledged that some people send money overseas to be kept by relatives and that it is illegal to send the proceeds of crime overseas.
A cultural center was built
Jurors also heard testimony from Jacob Steen, a lawyer who helped Sharif acquire the land parcel for the cultural center called Afrique, which prosecutors allege was a shell company used to launder federal child nutrition funds.
Afrique's emails and marketing materials previously shown to the jury by prosecutors said the centers would be supported by “large and stable revenues” with high profit margins from federal child nutrition programs.
Steen and others testified that the East African Events Center was built, but development was halted due to federal charges. It was then taken over by Yousef Ali, who now operates it as the Zawadi Center, which includes a coffee shop, restaurant, event center and offices.
Ali testified that he invested about $500,000 to start the business last year, but did not know how Sharif funded the initial construction, although prosecutors allege more than $900,000 came from federal food funds.
A Cisco sales consultant also testified that Sharif purchased $1 million worth of food and supplies from Cisco for Afrique in 2021 and 2022, which were delivered weekly.
Sharif is likely to elaborate on this point when he takes the stand again on Thursday.
