Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future case represents the single biggest Covid fraud uncovered so far. When it comes to Covid fraud, we’re number 1. The case features a cast of “diverse” defendants without much diversity. They are almost all Somali, I am sorry to say, though the ringleader was Aimee Bock, a white woman who played the race card as necessary.
All together, 70 defendants have been charged to date. Eighteen have pleaded guilty. The first of the cases to go to trial featured a large cast of seven defendants — the biggest criminal trial ever in federal court here. Five of the seven defendants were convicted. Two were acquitted. The remaining cases have yet to be tried.
The seven defendants were well-dressed (the government appears not to have succeeded in confiscating all the funds in issue), young, and savvy. They would have had a constructive contribution to make if they hadn’t sought to exploit the seams in a system that abounds in free money.
Trial of the seven defendants commenced on April 22. The evidence of fraud was gross and overwhelming. Defendants of course knew they were guilty. Three of the defendants (Abdiaziz Farah, Said Farah, and Abdimajid Nur) schemed throughout trial to bribe a juror. They were assisted by a younger brother (Abdulkarim Farah) of two of the three and a woman (Ladan Ali) who had a hand in the underlying case but has not been charged. She was recruited from Seattle to act as the bag lady for a fee of $150,000.
Attorney Steve Schleicher was the most capable of the defendants’ attorneys. His client (Said Farah) was acquitted, but Farah knew he was guilty. If Farah had the funds to pay Schleicher’s hourly rate the FBI must have left a lot of cash on the table when it executed search warrants on defendants’ premises in January 2022.
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