Minnesota Democratic lawmakers received over $50K in campaign cash from Feeding Our Future fraudsters

Minnesota Democratic lawmakers, including the Attorney General, were handed over $53,000 in campaign contributions by fraudsters who ripped off taxpayer cash meant to feed children.

AG Keith Ellison, his councilman son, mayor Jacob Frey, Representative Ilhan Omar and others received cash from the scammers who siphoned off some $250 million, largely through nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Many did so after meeting the crooks, raising questions about how much they knew.

“I’m not here because I think it’s going to help my re-election,” Ellison said during an encounter with Somali business leaders, two of whom later became criminal defendants linked to the scandal, according to audio obtained by the Center of the American Experiment.

However, days after the December 11, 2021 meeting, Ellison’s campaign took in $10,000 from the businessmen. Gandi Mohamed made a maximum $2,500 donation to Ellison’s re-election campaign. He was indicted on federal bribery and fraud charges last year.

Three more $2,500 donations linked to Feeding Our Future were also accepted by Ellison’s campaign on the same day.

“Amazingly, Ellison has done nothing about the fraud, and he’s the top cop in the state,” said Bill Glahn, Policy Fellow with Center of the American Experiment.

How Somalli Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch

Prosecutors say members of the Somali diaspora, a group with growing political power, were largely responsible. President Trump has drawn national attention to the scandal amid his crackdown on immigration

By Ernesto Londoño
Reporting from Minneapolis
Published Nov. 29, 2025
Updated Nov. 30, 2025

The fraud scandal that rattled Minnesota was staggering in its scale and brazenness. Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a government program meant to keep children fed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At first, many in the state saw the case as a one-off abuse during a health emergency. But as new schemes targeting the state’s generous safety net programs came to light, state and federal officials began to grapple with a jarring reality.

Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never provided.

Federal prosecutors say that 59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money has been stolen in three plots they are investigating. That is more than Minnesota spends annually to run its Department of Corrections. Minnesota’s fraud scandal stood out even in the context of rampant theft during the pandemic, when Americans stole tens of billions through unemployment benefits, business loans and other forms of aid, according to federal auditors

Outrage has swelled among Minnesotans, and fraud has turned into a potent political issue in a competitive campaign season. Gov. Tim Walz and fellow Democrats are being asked to explain how so much money was stolen on their watch, providing Republicans, who hope to take back the governor’s office in 2026, with a powerful line of attack.

In recent days, President Trump has weighed in, calling Minnesota “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” and saying that Somali perpetrators should be sent “back to where they came from.”

Many Somali Americans in Minnesota say the fraud has damaged the reputation of their entire community, around 80,000 people, at a moment when their political and economic standing was on the rise.

Debate over the fraud has opened new rifts between the state’s Somali community and other Minnesotans, and has left some Somali Americans saying they are unfairly facing a new layer of suspicion against all of them, rather than the small group accused of fraud. Critics of the Walz administration say that the fraud persisted partly because state officials were fearful of alienating the Somali community in Minnesota. Governor Walz, who has instituted new fraud-prevention safeguards, defended his administration’s actions.

The episode has raised broader questions for some residents about the sustainability of Minnesota’s Scandinavian-modeled system of robust safety net programs bankrolled by high taxes. That system helped create an environment that drew immigrants to the state over many decades, including tens of thousands of Somali refugees..............

snip

Minneapolis judge sparks fury by overturning $7.2m fraud
conviction, as Somalis scam Minnesota out of $1 BILLION
Daily Mail UK ^ | December 1, 2025 | Emma Richter
Posted on 12/2/2025, 1:45:15 AM by Morgana

A judge in Minneapolis has sparked rage after she decided to overturn a taxpayer fraud conviction that saw a husband and wife go down for robbing $7.2 million from people.

Abdifatah Yusuf, 44, was found guilty of robbing innocent taxpayers through a home healthcare care company called Promise Health in August.

A jury found that he and his wife, Lul Ahmed, ran a deceitful Medicaid fraud scheme out of a mailbox at the so-called medical company and used the money for ‘lavish’ shopping sprees, including trips to name brand and designer stores like Coach, Canada Goose, Nike, Michael Kors, and to purchase high end cars, according to prosecutors.

But in a shocking twist of events, and months after Yusuf was found responsible for directing the massive scam, Judge Sarah West decided last week that the jury was all wrong and he should be let off the hook.

She defended her choice by stating that the case ‘relied heavily on circumstantial evidence’ and that the state of Minnesota did not rule out other potential ‘reasonable inferences.’

Her decision to overturn the case, which is extremely rare especially in criminal cases, has ignited a fire storm not just for the general public but for the jurors who sealed his fate.

‘I am shocked. I’m shocked based off of all of the evidence that was presented to us and the obvious guilt that we saw based off of the said evidence,’ jury foreperson Ben Walfoort told KARE 11 News.

‘It was not a difficult decision whatsoever. The deliberation took probably four hours at most. Based off of the state’s evidence that was presented, it was beyond a reasonable doubt,’ he added.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...

As many as 100 federal agents are headed to Minn after
massive tax dollar fraud committed by Somali immigrants.

What Ilhan Omar know about the $1B welfare fraud cases

“Tax-paid Somali Congressman” US Rep. Ilhan Omar has close and personal ties to the $1B Somali federal welfare scam in her congressional district. Her tax-paid job is representing these thieves.

<><>Omar held parties at a key Somali restaurant in the federal Covid $25M fraud,
<><>she personally knew one of its convicted Somali owners,
<><>one of her own crooked staffers was convicted for stealing tax dollars from this federal program.
<><>she received campaign funds from scammers

Omar laughingly says she “knew nothing” about the Somali scams.

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