DOJ DROPS BOMBSHELL - DOZENS -ARRESTED IN ILHAN OMAR BACKED $250 MILLION FRAUD
Another Suspect In Massive Minnesota Food Fraud Probe Sentenced A Lakeville man was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to one year of probation for his involvement in the massive Feeding Our Future fraud investigation. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel sentenced Khadar Adan, who pleaded guilty in August to one count of theft of government property, for allowing a fraudulent food distribution site to operate out of his Minneapolis business center, JigJiga.
Adan admitted to accepting $1,000 in illicit proceeds and was ordered to pay the same amount in restitution, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported. Adan was the last of three defendants tied to the Lake Street Kitchen scheme housed within JigJiga to plead guilty. The $250 million Feeding Our Future case — centered on a St. Anthony nonprofit — is the largest pandemic-era fraud prosecution in the United States. Of the 75 people charged, 50 have entered guilty pleas.
Prosecutors say the defendants falsely claimed to have provided millions of meals to children during the COVID-19 pandemic, instead diverting federal reimbursements to purchase luxury cars, real estate, and other high-end goods. According to court records, Adan and his co-defendants claimed to have served 70,000 meals between December 2020 and April 2021 through Lake Street Kitchen, receiving “significant funds” in return. Federal prosecutors said only a small fraction of those meals were actually distributed. Co-defendant Liban Yasin Alishire, who co-operated Lake Street Kitchen and another site, Community Enhancement Services, received more than $1.6 million and pleaded guilty in 2023. Meanwhile, a former campaign associate of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) pleaded guilty last month to participating in the same scam, adding another chapter to the growing list of controversies surrounding the progressive lawmaker’s political orbit.
Federal prosecutors announced that 49-year-old Guhaad Hashi Said — described by Alpha News as an “enforcer” for Omar’s campaign — admitted in court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charges stem from a wide-ranging fraud targeting a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The conviction many in the Feeding Our Future case is yet another reminder of the vast reach of this fraud and the scale of the crisis we face in Minnesota,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said in a statement. “These crimes are not isolated events. They are part of a web of schemes targeting programs that are intended to lift up Minnesotans and bleeding them dry.
“From where I sit, the scale of the fraud in Minnesota is staggering, and every rock we turn over reveals more. We must be honest and clear-eyed about the scope of this problem, because ending it will take an unyielding, all-hands-on-deck effort from all of us,” Thompson added. According to court documents, between December 2020 and January 2022, Said exploited the Federal Child Nutrition Program, falsely claiming his nonprofit — Advance Youth Athletic Development — was serving thousands of meals daily to underprivileged children. Incorporated in February 2021, the organization was registered to a residential apartment in the Central Avenue Lofts in Minneapolis. Beginning in March 2021, Said submitted meal count sheets claiming to have served 5,000 meals per day. From March through December of that year, he claimed to have served more than 1 million meals — but in reality provided only a fraction of that number.
Prosecutors say he fabricated meal counts, attendance rosters, and invoices to secure reimbursements. The scheme brought in roughly $2.9 million in federal funds. Between August and December 2021, Said transferred more than $2.1 million from his organization’s bank accounts to a catering business, ostensibly for food purchases, while using other proceeds to buy real estate, cars, and personal items through a network of shell nonprofits and LLCs, the DOJ said. Said now faces up to 25 years in federal prison when sentenced. He previously ran for the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2018.
A billionaire father returned home early and found his paralyzed twins on the floor—laughing. What their caregiver did next challenged everything he believed
A billionaire father had built a strict medical routine to protect his paralyzed twins—until the day he came home early and found them lying on the floor with their caregiver, unaware that a simple movement would challenge everything he had ever been told.
Graham Holloway hadn’t planned to return until sunset. For nearly two years, his life had followed the same cold, unchanging pattern. He left home before his sons were fully awake, spent long hours in a glass tower in downtown Raleigh, and returned at night to a strangely quiet mansion. His staff ensured everything was perfect. His schedule was set down to the minute. Every room looked flawless.
And yet, nothing in that house felt alive.
On Thursday, a meeting with investors ended earlier than expected. A contract delay pushed discussions to the following week. Graham could have stayed in the city, reviewing numbers, but a deeper exhaustion than usual made him stop pretending. He dismissed his driver at the entrance of his estate in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and chose to walk in alone through a side door.
It reminded him of how his late wife used to surprise him—hearing the door open, laughing somewhere in the hallway, telling him dinner would be ready soon. Sometimes their twins would rush to him before he could even set down his briefcase.
Those memories had become dangerous.
Entering the quiet house, Graham loosened his tie, expecting the usual silence.
But then he heard something so unexpected that he froze.
Children laughing.
Not from a TV. Not from a tablet. Real laughter—clear, light, alive.
For a moment, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him.
Then he followed the sound.
What he saw took his breath away.
The laughter led him down the east hallway to the rehabilitation room he had set up after the accident. He pushed the door open so abruptly his shoulder hit the frame.
Both wheelchairs were empty.
His heart began pounding painfully.
On the padded floor lay his sons, Declan and Wesley Mercer, eight years old. Wesley still had a faint mark above his eyebrow—a reminder of the fall that had changed everything.
They were on their backs, knees bent, bare feet pressing against foam pads and small wooden blocks.
Standing beside them was Naomi Bell, the caregiver he had hired three months earlier.
She wasn’t panicked or rushed.
She was calm.
One hand supported Declan’s hips, while the other rested gently on Wesley’s knee. Her movements were slow, steady—almost like music.
In a soft voice, she hummed a quiet tune about rivers, light, and progress inch by inch.
The boys were not afraid.
They were smiling.
Graham couldn’t move.
For two years, every specialist had told him the same thing: no improvement, no recovery, no hope beyond maintenance. He had built his entire world around that certainty—structured routines, controlled environments, zero risks.
And now… his sons were on the floor.
“Stop.” His voice came out sharper than he intended.
Naomi looked up, calm but alert. “Mr. Holloway, I can explain—”
“They’re not supposed to be out of their chairs,” he cut in, stepping closer, his pulse racing. “What are you doing?”
Declan turned his head first. “Dad?”
Wesley grinned. “We’re playing.”
Playing.
The word hit him harder than anything else.
Naomi slowly removed her hands, making sure the boys were stable before standing. “They’re safe,” she said gently. “I would never put them in danger.”
Graham’s eyes scanned their bodies, expecting panic, pain—anything. But there was none. Just flushed cheeks… and that laughter still lingering in the air.
“They moved,” Naomi continued carefully. “Not much—but enough.”
“That’s not possible,” Graham said immediately. “We’ve had the best doctors—”
“And they taught you to protect them,” she said softly. “But not to test them.”
Silence filled the room.
Naomi crouched again, this time slower, more deliberate. “Wesley, can you show your dad what you just did?”
Wesley hesitated, then nodded. With visible effort, he pressed his heel into the foam and shifted—just slightly—but enough.
Graham’s breath caught.
It was small. Almost nothing.
But it wasn’t nothing.
Declan followed, a tiny movement of his leg, his face tightening with concentration—then breaking into a proud smile.
“See?” he whispered.
Something inside Graham cracked.
All this time… had he been holding them back?
Naomi stood again. “They don’t need less care,” she said. “They need a different kind.”
Graham looked at his sons—really looked at them—not as fragile patients, but as children.
Children who were trying.
For the first time in years, he didn’t know what the right answer was.
