Abdulahi Osman has NOT been charged with any crime. Nor does his name appear in any indictment or search warrant in the Feeding Our Future list.
However, his name does appear eight (8) times on a list of trial exhibits submitted by the U.S. Attorney’s office in advance of next week’s court proceeding in the case.
Abdulahi Ali Osman ran in 2022 as the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) candidate for House District 19B. The district includes the towns of Owatonna, Waseca, and adjacent areas. In November 2022, Osman received 5,166 votes, but finished well behind his incumbent Republican opponent.
Beginning on Monday, April 22, the first group of eight (8) defendants will stand trial in Federal court. All eight are associated with the Empire Cuisine group in the case and all eight have pled not guilty.
The prosecutor’s list of potential exhibits runs 119 pages and contain some 1,500 individual items, which may or may not be introduced at trial. Beyond the defendants charged, dozens of additional names appear on the list. To reiterate, having your name appear on a list of trial exhibits does not mean one is guilty of any crime.
In running in 2022, Osman registered his campaign committee with the state Campaign Finance Board (CFP), listing an Owatonna address on 24th Avenue. No longer active, Osman’s campaign finance committee reports raising and spending $5,600 on his 2022 effort.
CFP reports that a person named Ali Diriye served as Osman’s campaign chair, and that the campaign used Wells Fargo as its bank.
In the Feeding Our Future case, the government lists the following as Exhibit O-196,
Exhibit O-196 is the sixth reference to Osman in the Exhibit lists. Exhibits E-19 and G-150 are emails where Osman appears as one of the listed recipients. The other five references to Osman appear on exhibits involving personal banking records where Osman is the sole account holder, or one of two account holders.
Immediately following Osman on the exhibit list, the name Ali Diriye appears three times, associated with additional banking records (Exhibits O-199 to O-201). This Ali Diriye is listed, additionally, as the sender of the email mentioned in Exhibit G-150. The exhibit description refers to an Owatonna-based corporate entity owned by this Diriye. That corporate name appears in three other exhibits, including O-192, banking records for the company.
Again, no person named Ali Diriye has been charged with any crime or accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
Banking records for three corporate entities controlled by Osman appear on the exhibit list, as Exhibits O-188 to O-191. All three corporate entities have that same office suite on 24th Avenue in Owatonna listed as their registered address.
To repeat a final time, neither Osman nor anyone named Diriye have been charged in the case.
As I’ve said many times, in a case this complex, coincidences abound.