Farhiya Ahmed Mohamud, aged 65, defendant No. 35 in the sprawling free-food scandal, became Guilty Plea No. 23 this afternoon at the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. She pled guilty to one count of money laundering.
Your correspondent was there.
Sentencing guidelines in this case call for prison time of between 18 and 24 months. In the plea agreement filed today, prosecutors said that they are seeking no jail time and just one year of probation.
Farhiya was one of nine defendants charged from the Haji’s Kitchen group of defendants. She is the mother of Sharmarke Issa (defendant No. 34, guilty plea No. 19. Issa was a two-time appointee of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as head of the city’s housing authority.
During the hearing, Farhiya was assisted by a Somali-language interpreter. She was born in Somalia and is a U.S. citizen.
According to prosecutors, Farhiya was a bit player in the scandal, not participating in the fraud proper, but only in the back-end money laundering operation. The term “willfully blind” was used. She reportedly kept little of the money for herself, mostly aiding her son, Issa.
But during today’s hearing, her work with two other individuals was discussed: Haji Salad (the group’s ringleader, defendant No. 31 and guilty plea No. 20) and Fahad Nur (defendant No. 32 and a fugitive).
Other than the fugitive Nur, all the others from the Haji group have not pled guilty. After Fariya formally entered her plea today, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel formally cancelled the courtroom trial that had been scheduled for next month.
Today’s hearing took 45 minutes.
In related news, yesterday, my attention was directed to a newish pro-Feeding Our Future substack. Written under the name “Zara Frost,” and launched last month, its goal appears to be to tell the Feeding Our Future story from the point of view of the defendants in the case.
In its five weeks of operation, there have been 17 entries posted to the account. Much of the content seeks to cast doubts on the government’s case and to re-direct blame to a competing nonprofit, Partners in Nutrition, and to the state Department of Education (MDE).
Your correspondent (name misspelled) makes an appearance in the inaugural Sept. 11 blog entry. Suffice it to say that Zara is not a fan of my work.
You can read my debunking of the “real food for real kids” defense (a defense that failed at trial) here.