Abdi Nur Salah, a former senior policy aide to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud. He admitted to stealing $1.66 million from a federal pandemic child nutrition program.
Salah earned an annual base salary of $85,914.40 in his role with the mayor’s office. Despite that income, prosecutors say he used his involvement with two nonprofit organizations to fraudulently claim that nearly five million meals were served to children over the course of a year.
I guess being a woke mayor who loves DEI hires didn’t work out for him after all.
Salah’s Role in the Feeding Our Future Scheme
Salah is the 31st defendant to be sentenced in the sweeping Feeding Our Future fraud case, which prosecutors say drained roughly $250 million from federal taxpayer funds. Authorities hold Salah responsible for approximately $1.6 million of that total. According to prosecutors, he used Feeding Our Future and a second organization, Stigma-Free International, to carry out the fraudulent meal claims.
The Feeding Our Future scandal is one of the largest pandemic-era fraud cases in the country, and Feeding Our Future fraud sentencing has drawn renewed attention to how federal relief money was administered during the COVID-19 emergency. Federal investigators have pursued dozens of defendants connected to the scheme over several years.
What Comes Next for Salah and the Case
With 31 defendants now sentenced, federal prosecutors continue to work through the remaining cases tied to the Feeding Our Future network. Salah’s conviction adds to a long list of guilty pleas and verdicts stemming from the investigation.
His sentencing also puts a fresh spotlight on Mayor Frey’s office, given that Salah held a senior policy position there while the fraud was allegedly taking place. No allegations of wrongdoing have been made against Frey or other members of his administration in connection with the case.
