U.S. Attorney seeks 12+ year sentence for second Feeding Our Future defendant
A second sentencing hearing has been set for this month in the sprawling Feeding Our Future fraud case. Mohamed Jama Ismail is due in court on October 15 to learn his fate.
Ismail is defendant No. 16 overall in the case and was the co-owner of the now-defunct Empire Cuisine restaurant in Shakopee.
You may recall that Ismail was the gentleman who was arrested in April 2022 by the FBI on a jetway at MSP airport before he could board a flight to Kenya via Amsterdam. Ismail had checked 5 large suitcases for the trip.
Ismail’s home in Savage was Premises No. 2 in one of the early search warrants in the Feeding case. In that January 2022 raid on Ismail’s home, the FBI seized his U.S. Passport.
Ismail fraudulently obtained a replacement passport and nearly succeeded in fleeing the country. Ismail was convicted of passport fraud and served 7 months in jail.
At the Feeding Our Future fraud trial earlier this year, Ismail was convicted on three of four counts he faced. He has not been linked in any way to the related juror bribery case.
On the food-fraud convictions, the U.S. Attorney is requesting a prison sentence of 151 months, or 12 years and seven months. The fraud proceeds associated with Empire Cuisine totaled some $30 million. Ismail’s personal take was more than $2 million. Prosecutors note (p. 4) that,
In addition, Ismail paid off a six-figure mortgage on his home and sent nearly $500,000 in fraud proceeds to China,
Prosecutors note that Ismail also owns real estate in Kenya and Somalia, also beyond reach, which will also contribute to his post-prison wealth.
On his behalf, Ismail is requesting a downward departure on his prison sentence, to total a mere 2 to 3 years. He claims to have played only a minor role in the scheme, shifting blame to his Empire business partner and lead defendant in the group, Abdiaziz Farah.
In addition, Ismail notes (p. 1) that he is a “hard-working” “refugee from Somalia.” Working against Ismail’s cause is his documented relationship to the fake Southcross feeding site in Burnsville, which plays a prominent role across the free-food scandal. The Southcross site was Subject Premises No. 3 in a different search warrant in the larger case.
A sentencing hearing for one of Mr. Ismail’s co-defendants, Mukhtar Shariff, is still scheduled for October 16. However, Shariff is now requesting a delay.
Prosecutors have produced late claims that Shariff recorded some 11 hours of trial testimony on his phone. They say Shariff also deleted a messaging app from his phone when news broke of the juror bribery scandal. Shariff has not been charged with any crime related to the bribery case.
Also due back in court on October 16 is Aimee Bock, Feeding Our Future’s founder and Defendant No. 1 in the overall case. Prosecutors say that Bock violated the terms of her pre-trial release by not disclosing a $186,000 student-loan line of credit she obtained in May 2024.
Stay tuned!