Despite Promises, Minnesota Dems Kept Some of Their Fraud-Linked Somali Donations
(The Center Square) - In an attempt to distance themselves from the Feeding Our Future fraud, Minnesota politicians vowed to return their tainted donations, but an investigation by The Center Square found that some did not follow through with their promises.
Others, including the state's Attorney General Keith Ellison -- the state's top law-enforcement official -- and several lawmakers and candidates who failed to win office, took a significant amount of time to return the money or refused to provide documentation that the money was returned or donated elsewhere.
The returned donations, which were all to Democrats, were mostly tied to an initial wave of indictments for the fraud scheme in September 2022. Since then, the number of people accused of stealing about $300 million of federal aid money has nearly doubled.
State Sen. John Hoffman, who received eight questionable donations that totaled about $3,300, sent all of the money to the U.S. Marshals Service because the donated money might have been obtained through fraud.
"It was the right thing to do," he told The Center Square.
But the newer indictments did not garner the same expeditious response from other politicians who received fraud-linked donations, The Center Square found.
Minnesota is flush with fraud accusations that have extended beyond the now-defunct Feeding Our Future, an organization that facilitated the theft of federal money that was meant to provide food to children. Last year, federal prosecutors also accused more than a dozen people of stealing aid for housing and autism services.
The scandal put a spotlight on the state's large Somali community because its members constitute the bulk of those who have been accused of and convicted for the fraud.
President Donald Trump last month referred to Somali immigrants in Minnesota as "garbage." His administration recently sent more than 2,000 federal agents to the state to arrest certain immigrants for deportation, and the administration has cut off funds for programs that had significant fraud.
"There's strong ties between the attorney general and members of the legislature and the Somali community," Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican who leads a committee of legislators that is investigating the fraud, told The Center Square. "We felt, at a minimum, that anyone who has been indicted for fraud, those donations should be returned."
The Center Square scoured five years of campaign contribution data for donations from people connected to the fraud and is reporting campaign contributions for donors only where names could be verified with some combination of ages, addresses and/or employment.
Ellison relents under scrutiny
Last year, Robbins pressed Ellison about potentially spurious donations he had received.
Ellison had already returned a $2,500 campaign contribution to a donor who was indicted in September 2022 for the food aid fraud. The donor, Liban Alishire, later pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering and awaits sentencing, court records show. He has agreed to repay more than $700,000 of stolen aid.
But Ellison rejected Robbins' scrutiny of donations Ellison received after meeting with people connect to the fraud schemes in December 2021. A recording of that meeting was published last year by the Center of the American Experiment, a group that advocates for conservative policies in Minnesota.
In a letter to Robbins in June 2025, Ellison said he "rejected offers of campaign support" in that meeting.
But shortly after the 2021 meeting Ellison's campaign received four donations on the same day of $2,500 apiece. One of the donors was Gandi Mohamed, who was charged with several crimes in 2024 for allegedly participating in the fraud scheme and laundering money from it.
As a result of the fraud committee's scrutiny, Ellison returned the donation from Mohamed in recent months, Robbins said.
A spokesperson for Ellison said all four donations were given by the campaign "to a fund administered by the federal government," but he declined to say when or provide documentation that supports the statement.
Ellison's campaign finance records for last year that might document the transfers are not yet available.
Other campaign disclosures show that Mohamed also contributed $1,000 to the campaign of Farhio Khalif, who lost a state Senate election in 2022. Additionally, Khalif received a donation from Ikram Mohamed, a sibling of Gandi Mohamed who faces numerous charges related to the fraud, court records show.
Ikram Mohamed attended the 2021 meeting with Ellison, the Center of the American Experiment reported.
Campaign finance records for Khalif do not indicate the contributions were returned. Khalif did not respond to a request to comment for this article.
Other statehouse campaigns
In January 2022, when federal search warrant documents related to the Feeding Our Future scandal became publicly available, state Sen. Omar Fateh moved quickly to return donations from people who were explicitly named in the documents or who were otherwise linked to the fraud, campaign disclosures show.
His campaign committee indicated in an annual finance report that it sent back 11 contributions from 2021 worth $11,000, or about a quarter of his total donations that year.
But there were two other $1,000 donations he did not return, records show: One from Ikram Mohamed and one from her husband Shakur Abdisalam, who both were indicted for the fraud scheme in 2024.
Fateh did not respond to requests to comment for this article. Communications between his campaign and the state's Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board indicate Fateh intended to return the donations by check to the donors, and it's unclear whether those checks were cashed.
Former state Rep. John Thompson received two donations from Hanna Marekegn in 2022, who was among the first people charged with crimes for the Feeding Our Future scheme. He lost a primary election that year and did not submit a year-end campaign finance report, so it's unclear whether he returned the donations. He couldn't not be reached to comment.
Senate candidate Sahra Odowa received a $1,000 contribution in 2020 from Abdiaziz Farah, who was sentenced to 28 years in prison for his role in the fraud scheme. Campaign disclosure records do not indicate Odowa returned any contributions.
State Rep. Mohamud Noor returned a $320 contribution directly to Liban Alishire not long after Alishire was indicted in 2022.
Robbins said she and other lawmakers are uncovering new avenues of fraud -- related to services for adults and non-emergency medical transportation -- and that the investigations in her state are likely to help uncover similar crimes elsewhere.
"Minnesota is the canary in the coal mine, and we are starting to see connections and similar patterns in other states," she said.
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