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Prosecutors are asking a judge to jail a defendant in the next Feeding Our Future trial for allegedly trying to stop a cooperator from testifying. Abdiwahab Ahmed Mohamud is the second defendant in the sprawling case accused of witness tampering.
Mohamud, 35, is one of 76 people charged with defrauding federally-funded child nutrition programs out of hundreds of millions of dollars during COVID. Nearly three quarters of the defendants have been convicted, mostly after entering into plea deals with the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office. Mohamud is maintaining his innocence and faces trial starting Oct. 14.
In a filing Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melinda Williams and Dan Bobier write that Mohamud met twice with an unnamed cooperating defendant, called the person a snitch and cursed at them for pleading guilty.
During a Wednesday meeting with prosecutors and case agents, the cooperator expressed reluctance to take the stand, according to the filing.
“This is witness tampering,” the prosecutors write. “Mohamud’s actions are not merely violative of his release conditions, they are criminal. His attempts at tampering with a possibly key witness in his forthcoming trial corrupts these proceedings and violates federal law.”
In February, during the trial of Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and restaurant owner Salim Said, a judge revoked the pretrial release of Abdinasir Abshir, after Abshir approached cooperating defendant Sharmake Jama in a courthouse hallway and asked to speak with him in a bathroom. Jama, who was waiting to testify, declined the request and alerted his attorney.
Abshir, who was not charged with jury tampering, pleaded guilty in March to wire fraud.
During the first Feeding Our Future trial in 2024, three defendants conspired with two other people to hatch an ill-fated scheme to bribe a juror by delivering $120,000 in cash to her home stacked inside a Hallmark gift bag.
Prosecutors charged all five people, including a defendant who was acquitted of the underlying fraud charges, with jury bribery. All five have since pleaded guilty.
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