A man pleads guilty for witness tampering attempt with Feeding our Future

MINNEAPOLIS – A Lakeville man recently pleaded guilty to wire fraud and his role in the $250 million fraud scheme. According to Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick, the 37th defendant exploited, Feeding Our Future, a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

From April 2020 through January 2022, Abdinasir Mahamed Abshir, 33, claimed to be operating a child nutrition site in Mankato, Minnesota. According to court documents, Abshir ran his food site, Stigma-Free Mankato, under the Feeding our Future sponsor.

Shortly after creating the site, the defendant falsely claimed to be serving meals to 3,000 children daily, every week. His claims included that he served meals from J’s Sambusa, a small restaurant in North Mankato.

Abshir then created a shell company called Horseed Management. He falsely claimed it was a meal vendor for the Stigma-Free Mankato. Between November 2020 and November 2021, Abshir and his co-conspirators falsely claimed to have served approximately 1.6 million meals to children through Stigma-Free Mankato.

Abshir and his co-conspirators then prepared and submitted fake meal counts, invoices, and attendance rosters. Instead of using the fraudulently obtained money to feed children, Abshir and his co-conspirators fraudulently misappropriated much of it.

Abshir transferred millions of dollars from Horseed Management to himself and other co-conspirators. This included transferring fraud proceeds to a shell company the defendant created called Calikamin Enterprise. Abshir also used fraudulent funds to purchase a 2021 Range Rover, it’s been seized and will be forfeited to the United States.

Abshir paid more than $100,000 in bribes and kickbacks from Horseed Management to Abdikerm Eidleh, a Feeding Our Future employee, according to court documents. Eidleh would then exchange it for sponsoring and facilitating Stigma-Free Mankato’s fraudulent participation in the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

Feeding Our Future received nearly $420,000 in administrative fees to sponsor Stigma-Free Mankato’s participation in the program. In December 2021, Abshir paid $5,750 to a GoFundMe account for Feeding Our Future created by Aimee Bock. Stigma-Free Mankato received over $5.4 million in total payments from Feeding Our Future based on fraudulent claims.

On February 18, 2025, Abshir attempted to also obstruct or impede the administration of justice. He communicated with a cooperating witness in the trial of his co-defendants in United States v. Aimee. Bock and Salim Said.

Abshir approached a witness before they testified in the trial, at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Abshir specifically requested that the witness come with him to the bathroom to have a conversation.

Today, Abshir pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court before Judge Nancy E. Brasel. In his plea, he acknowledges an enhancement will apply to his Sentencing Guidelines. This is. because he obstructed justice from attempting to tamper with a witness. There will be a scheduled sentencing hearing at a later date.

The case is the result of an investigation by the FBI, IRS – Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph H. Thompson, Matthew S. Ebert, Harry M. Jacobs, and Daniel W. Bobier are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Baune is handling the seizure and forfeiture of assets.