Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman entangled in fraud trial

Federal prosecutors showed the jury in the Feeding Our Future trial on Tuesday evidence that Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman turned over his “shell company” nonprofit to others who used it to commit fraud.

Osman has lingered on the periphery of the massive pandemic fraud case, and the extent of his involvement became more clear Tuesday during the second trial in the sprawling case. Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock is on trial with a co-defendant for allegedly orchestrating a $250 million pay-to-play scheme through her nonprofit.

Concerned about the exponential growth in the program and possible fraud, the state Department of Education changed the rules in 2020 so for-profits could no longer be food distribution sites. So some of the players turned to nonprofits to continue the fraud, prosecutors say.

One of those, they say, was a nonprofit Osman founded called Stigma-Free International. Osman, his wife Ilo Amba and two others incorporated the nonprofit in August 2019. Osman has said he did mental health outreach before leaving the nonprofit. But Postal Inspector John Western testified Tuesday that Stigma-Free had no employees, office or apparent activity.

Osman didn’t return a message for comment on Tuesday.

There was no activity in its bank account until Abdi Nur Salah “took over” and the nonprofit was turned over to Ahmed Artan and others in October 2020, Western said. At the time, Salah was a senior policy advisor to Mayor Jacob Frey. He was fired after his involvement became known, and he recently pleaded guilty.

Osman emailed Salah documents in 2020 about his nonprofit, and Salah forwarded them to an attorney and Salah’s brother, Abdulkadir Nur Salah, then co-owner of Safari Restaurant, a small Minneapolis restaurant that prosecutors say was one of the biggest players in the fraud scheme, receiving over $16 million in federal funds. Abdulkadir Nur Salah also recently pleaded guilty.

In the email, Osman said Stigma-Free wanted to dissolve as soon as possible and transfer to new people.

Osman exited the nonprofit about two months after he was elected to the City Council in August 2020. Prosecutors showed the jurors emails that he said he was resigning due to “family commitments and work schedule,” while lauding Stigma-Free as an “amazing organization” that grew during his time at the helm.

Under questioning from prosecutors Tuesday, the postal inspector was skeptical, saying the nonprofit “appeared to operate as a shell company.”

Prosecutors showed bank records, emails and other documents that indicated the nonprofit was quickly turned over to the new group. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson showed the jury an email with “corrected minutes” from a 2020 meeting of Stigma-Free’s board that he said “purports” to show they elected new officers, including Artan, who is charged in the larger fraud case.

Days later, Bock and Artan began setting up Stigma-Free food distribution sites under Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship. After months of no activity in Stigma-Free’s bank account, in January 2021, $1.6 million in Feeding Our Future checks were deposited.

Meal sites were opened in Willmar, Mankato, St. Cloud, Waite Park and St. Paul that prosecutors say were used to bilk the government out of more than $10 million. Western testified that the number of meals they claimed to give away were “inflated” and “unbelievable.”

About a month after turning Stigma-Free over to new directors, Osman’s wife, Amba, incorporated another nonprofit called Urban Advantage Center, which reported feeding 2,500 kids a day from February through September 2021, for which it was reimbursed more than $461,500.

Neither Ambo nor Osman has been charged with a crime. Amba’s nonprofit was shut down in November by Attorney General Keith Ellison after he said Amba created the “sham” charity to enrich herself and her family by exploiting the federal program.