Posted on 12/05/2024 9:11:20 PM PST by Salman
A Minneapolis nonprofit that served food to low-income kids has agreed to dissolve itself after a state investigation found it violated laws regarding its operations and financial transactions.
The move was announced Tuesday by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office began investigating Gar Gaar Family Services, also known as the Youth Leadership Academy, after it was rejected from participating in a federally funded program to provide food to students after school.
That denial, and the appeal process that followed, brought to light several instances of mismanagement in Gar Gaar’s operations, including a lack of accounting in how $2 million in federal funds had previously been used, according to a Tuesday release from the attorney general’s office.
The investigation then found additional issues, including:
Gar Gaar paid nearly $169,000 to a company owned by Khadija Ali and Priya Morioka, the two principal officers of Gar Gaar, without obtaining board approval or satisfying other requirements required by state law....
Gar Gaar paid $1.3 million to food vendors who were convicted of defrauding the federal government as part of the Feeding Our Future scandal.
The nonprofit’s board was composed of two members – Ali and Morioka – in 2021, when state law mandates at least three people sit on a nonprofit’s board. The board has also not held a meeting since January 2022.
Gar Gaar, which means “help” in Somali, launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to help students in need, especially those in the Somali community. The group served meals outside of the school year as part of the Summer Food Service Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture but managed by the Minnesota Department of Education.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
So, why is the education department now a food service and provider of crony welfare?
Since Obama made EBT accepted in all fast food chains?
Because Democrats. Those people.
Somali food fraud
By Anthony Gockowski
September 23, 2022
Minnesora we the people
At least nine of the 48 Somalis accused of defrauding the government of $250 million tax dollars meant to feed hungry children have donated to Democratic officeholders in Minnesota.The number is likely higher and Alpha News is working to confirm the identities of additional defendants.
Campaign finance records show 42-year-old Liban Yasin Alishire donated $2,500 in May of this year to the reelection campaign of Attorney General Keith Ellison. Campaign finance record showing Alishire’s donation to Keith Ellison. Alishire listed Hoodo Properties as his employer, which was a shell company he created to purchase luxury items and real estate with money he stole from the government, according to an indictment.
“[A]s the list of those indicted in the federal fraud investigation into Feeding Our Future became public, we became aware of a donation to our campaign from one of the individuals charged. We immediately refunded the donation in full,” Ellison’s campaign said in a statement provided to Alpha News. The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced charges against 48 Minnesotans Tuesday for allegedly defrauding the federal government’s Child Nutrition Programs of $250 million in a little over 20 months.
“The 48 Somali defendants engaged in a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,” U.S. Attorney Andy Luger said during a press conference announcing the charges. At the center of the charges is Aimee Bock, the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit whose offices were raided in January.
Somali “Feeding Our Future” participated in the Summer Food Service Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Programs, both belonging to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Child Nutrition Programs. These programs provide reimbursements for meals distributed to low-income children by food sites, like schools, nonprofits, restaurants, and more. Each food site must have a sponsor organization, in this case Feeding Our Future. The food sites submit reports on how many meals they are serving to the sponsor organization, which then submits the reports to the government for reimbursement.
In Minnesota, the federal reimbursements are wired to the sponsor organizations via the Department of Education, hence the recent criticism of this state agency. The sponsor organization then disburses the money among the food sites.
In some cases, the money flowed to the “fake meal sites” and then back to Feeding Our Future in the form of kickbacks, according to Luger. Alishire was the president of an organization called Community Enhancement Services, located in the JigJiga Business Center in Minneapolis.
His company operated a food site under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, falsely claiming to serve as many as 2,700 meals a day, seven days a week, according to an indictment. In total, Community Enhancement Services falsely claimed to have served more than 800,000 meals to low-income children between February and October 2021, the indictment says.
pic —— Liban Yasin Alishire with Minnesota Sen. Omar Fateh.
He and his co-defendants received more than $1.6 million tax dollars in Child Nutrition Programs funds. He allegedly transferred this money to shell companies and used it to purchase property in Kenya, a truck, and a boat. Alishire also paid more than $200,000 in kickbacks to a Feeding Our Future employee in exchange for Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship of his company’s “fraudulent participation” in the program, according to the indictment.
Alishire operated a second fake food site with his co-defendants, which received $180,000 in reimbursements, the indictment says. During his first court appearance Thursday, prosecutors said Alishire purchased a resort in Kenya using the stolen funds, KARE 11’s Lou Raguse reports. A judge ordered his release, despite concerns from the prosecution about him fleeing the country. At least three defendants have already left the country, according to Raguse.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Sen. Omar Fateh, and Minneapolis Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, the attorney general’s son, have all received donations from defendants in the case. Three of the defendants previously served in appointed positions in the Minneapolis city government.
Omar, Fateh, and Frey have said in previous statements to the media that they’ve returned the donations. None of them replied to requests for comment.
not related but(yet?)...there was\is this
I’d bet not a single meal was actually served.
L
What a surprise.
Now that the Great looting is almost over, The Great revelation of that will start. How we need more more money quick because it’s all spent/misappropriated/stolen/given away, vanished like morning fog in the sun.
There’s no such thing as a “non profit”
This was one of the programs “Tampon Tim” had championed, as part of the Feeding Our Future scandal, that lost over 460 million dollars of taxpayer money.
When brought under scrutiny, he got hostile, and kept repeating “That’s not who we are!”
Well, he’s not “we” either, he’s a carpetbagger from Nebraska, who has looted the State of MN treasury, of its 18 billion dollar surplus in just two short years.
government not minding the store just handing out tax payer money no questions asked, we need to fill up gitmo and other correctional facilities
We need to ask the Star Tribune to verify how many kids were fed how many meals and at what cost.
but, no evidence of wide spread fraud in the Summer Food Service Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Programs, both belonging to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Child Nutrition Programs across the nation.
gotta be an isolated incident
Why are people complaining?
This group merely found a way to beat the system.
There should be parades and awards. /s/
This just proves that the more people you employ, the weaker the system becomes.
EVERY one of these organizations set up here in MN that has those particular surnames attached, have gotten in trouble for FRAUD...
*shocked face*
Not to be confused with Ba Baa, which means "girlfriend" in Somali..
They’ll just form another organization under a different name and carry on.
And he is going to jail for fraud? I doubt it.
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