Feeding Our Future: 46th conviction (MN)

Federal prosecutors secured their 46th conviction in the free-food scandal when Ahmed Mohamed Artan, Defendant No. 8, entered a guilty plea. Artan, now age 40, now billed out of Golden Valley, pled guilty to one count of wire fraud.

The hearing took place this afternoon at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. Your correspondent was there.

Artan served as president of Stigma-Free International, one of the nonprofits at the heart of the scandal. Stigma-Free was originally founded by now-Minneapolis-city-council-member Jamal Osman, who transferred ownership of the nonprofit to Artan in October 2020.

Artan’s plea agreement mentions his founding of another fake nonprofit used in the fraud, Optimum Community Services, in Golden Valley. Artan founded Optimum in September 2020, and it was dissolved by court order in June 2024. At no point did the nonprofit ever file a tax return.

Artan was one of the “Five-A’s” investors who purchased the former Kelly’s 19th Hole bar/restaurant in Brooklyn Park. As part of the plea agreement, Artan forfeits his ownership share in Kelly’s.

In the agreement, Artan admitted to his role in defrauding the free-food program of between $1.5 million and $3.5 million. Artan agreed to a total restitution/forfeiture amount between $250,000 and $666,000.

Sentencing guidelines in his case work out to a prison sentence of between 33 and 41 months. That works out to about 3 years in prison, to borrow Artan’s favorite phrase, “more or less.”

His sentencing date has yet to be determined.

Please note that No One is MN state government has been disciplined or fired. This was a $600+ million fraud, and the DFL has been covering up the entire mess. Except for the feds uncovering it all.

From the article:

The scandal to date, by the numbers:

72 individuals indicted
$300 million stolen (needs to be updated)
46 convictions
39 guilty pleas 7 courtroom convictions
2 courtroom acquittals
1 acquittal to plead guilty to juror bribery
4 international fugitives (all in Somalia)
5th fugitive returned
1 person died of natural causes (case closed)
4 sentences pronounced

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