A Somali fraudster federally convicted in the Feeding Our Future scheme previously fought for a Minnesota nonprofit organization, the recent recipient of a new government grant, to receive millions of dollars in state funding.
African Economic Development Solutions, whose past clients include a Feeding Our Future defendant, was recently awarded a $100,000 grant as part of a public outreach initiative aimed at increasing “equitable” participation in Minnesota’s new paid leave program. That previous AEDS client, who testified to the state legislature in 2021 about why the nonprofit group should receive public funding, was later convicted in the United States’s largest known pandemic-era fraud scheme.
The state Department of Employment and Economic Development, which administers paid leave, said that grantees such as AEDS should focus on getting the message out to “priority populations,” such as “undocumented communities” and limited English proficiency speakers, about the generous new taxpayer-funded program.
“Through … trusted messengers in our communities, these efforts will ensure Minnesotans understand and can access this important program,” DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek said at the time of the grant disbursements.
Fraud watchdogs say that the newly launched Minnesota Paid Family and Medical Leave Program, open to illegal immigrants, is the latest public assistance program ripe for abuse in a state rocked by recent allegations of widespread fraud. An influx of claimants filed for benefits well before the state started paying out claims on Jan. 1, with thousands of those applicants already pocketing payments a week into the program’s rollout.
In December, AEDS received the grant funding from DEED to promote the paid leave program ahead of its launch date the following month. AEDS was tasked with reaching “underserved” community members, in particular, through “culturally specific” messaging.
Based in St. Paul and Portland, Oregon, both considered sanctuary cities for illegal immigration, AEDS works to “build wealth” within African immigrant communities by lending out business loans, such as loans that adhere to Sharia law.
One of the Feeding Our Future co-conspirators, a year before his 2022 indictment on federal fraud charges, testified in support of the state allocating $4 million in grant funding to AEDS.
At a March 2021 hearing, now-convicted fraudster Liban Yasin Alishire lobbied the Minnesota House of Representatives Workforce and Business Development Committee to award AEDS a multimillion-dollar grant budgeted to alleviate “pervasive economic inequities.”
The meeting minutes, as well as introductions from committee members, indicate that Alishire was an invited witness.
Alishire was specifically petitioning state lawmakers to pass House File 875, an appropriations bill that would have given AEDS a total of $4 million in taxpayer funds. Three-fourths of it was earmarked for building construction, and the rest was slated to go toward workforce development, especially assisting “African immigrant entrepreneurs.”
Testifying as a self-described small business owner, Alishire told the legislative body that he “partnered” with AEDS to build out his business. “AEDS as an organization was really critical,” Alishire said. “They helped us with marketing, our website, our business plan, [and] national projections.”
Alishire also suggested that AEDS, a business lending service, had helped him secure financing.
“We’re happy to work with partners like AEDS that really helped us walk through these different challenges,” Alishire added. “We went to regular banks, and they were not able to provide us with all the different help that the state and federal government was providing to businesses with better structure, legal structure, that had all their [Form] 941s and payrolls.”
In his opening remarks, Alishire mentioned that he co-owned the JigJiga Event Center, a banquet hall located at the same address as various other ventures he ran, including the JigJiga Business Center, the JigJiga Furniture Outlet, and Lakes Adult Day Care.
Jijiga is the capital city of Ethiopia’s Somali Region.
Alishire also operated Lake Street Kitchen and Community Enhancement Services, a so-called cultural mall that inhabited the same commercial space, through which he siphoned off more than $1.6 million in fraudulently collected Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
Per federal prosecutors, Alishire set up the entities with the express intent of exploiting the federally funded COVID-19 relief program designed to provide free meals to children in need during the pandemic. Participating businesses were able to recoup the cost of meals served.
Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota nonprofit group, recruited organizations such as Alishire’s to open food distribution sites throughout the state that would receive meal reimbursements under the auspices of the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
At the time, Feeding Our Future served as a sponsor organization in the federal child nutrition program. Food distributors that received meal reimbursements had to be sponsored by an authorized agency, which retained 10% to 15% of the funds as an administrative fee. In exchange for sponsoring a high number of these entities, most of them fraudulent, Feeding Our Future accrued more than $18 million in administrative fees.
Alishire admitted that he submitted fraudulent reimbursement claims to the Federal Child Nutrition Program purporting to provide meals to hundreds of underprivileged children per day under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. According to charging documents, in March 2021, the month of Alishire’s pro-AEDS testimony in which he represented himself as a businessman, he claimed to be feeding at least 2,500 children daily, seven days a week.
Much of the stolen money was funneled to himself and others via shell companies used to launder the proceeds. In 2023, Alishire ultimately pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. As part of the plea agreement, Alishire forfeited a boat bought with his share of the profits, real estate in Nairobi, and a seaside resort he had purchased along the Indian Ocean.
SOMALI-RUN ACCOUNTING FIRM WITH SPOTTY RECORD CONNECTS SCRUTINIZED SOMALI NONPROFIT GROUPS
Dr. Gene Gelgelu, the founder, president, and CEO of AEDS, confirmed that Alishire accessed the organization’s support services several years ago but noted that participation in AEDS programming “does not constitute a business partnership, endorsement, or ongoing relationship.”
In a statement, Gelgelu said that his organization was not aware of any unlawful conduct when Alishire worked with AEDS, nor did they have visibility into the fraudster’s financial operations, business practices, or activities related to the federal nutrition program.
“AEDS has no involvement in the Feeding Our Future case and had no knowledge of any illegal activity committed by Mr. Liban Yasin Alishire or any other individual referenced in your inquiry,” Gelgelu told the Washington Examiner.
Gelgelu said that AEDS, like many community‑based economic development organizations, offers general small‑business training and technical assistance to a wide range of entrepreneurs.
“AEDS remains committed to ethical operations, strong compliance, and transparent stewardship of public resources,” Gelgelu added. “Our organization has served Minnesota’s immigrant and small‑business communities for more than a decade, and we continue to follow all state and federal requirements for grant management, reporting, and oversight.”
AEDS is a longtime beneficiary of state funding. Last fiscal year, AEDS took in about $3.36 million in government grants, according to 2024 tax filings.
Though the nonprofit organization was never accused of wrongdoing, its ties to the convicted Somali swindler reflect widely shared financial interests within the state’s close-knit Somali community, as authorities work to dismantle Minnesota’s sprawling Somali fraud industrial complex.
HOW MINNESOTA’S SOMALI FRAUD INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX HAS STOLEN MILLIONS FROM MEDICAID
Until 2023, AEDS listed its address on tax returns as the Griggs-Midway Building, a massive multi-tenant office complex that was once ostensibly occupied by seven food distributors connected to the Feeding Our Future scandal. In 2025, the building became the center of a separate Medicaid fraud investigation into the healthcare businesses supposedly housed on-site.
As for HF 875, the bill did not pass despite a consortium of African business owners rallying behind it. In 2023, with Democrats in complete control of Minnesota’s state government, the bill was split and squeezed into infrastructure packages. Passage of Senate File 3035, in part, provided AEDS with $1 million annually over three years to underwrite a loan fund backing African-owned businesses.
HF 2003, a capital investment bill, awarded AEDS approximately $1.5 million in appropriations, set aside for the renovation of an unnamed building in St. Paul, rather than for building construction.
According to research from the Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota think tank, the renovation project resulted in the creation of Little Africa Plaza, a refurbished strip mall meant to be a retail hub revitalizing St. Paul’s African Cultural District.
The state Senate version of the original 2021 bill was sponsored by Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman, who reportedly received $3,000 in campaign donations from two Feeding Our Future defendants and their direct relatives. Hoffman’s campaign, however, returned the cash.
Minnesota state Rep. Mohamed Noor, another recipient of campaign contributions from Feeding Our Family fraudsters, chaired the House committee that heard HF 875.
In 2020, Alishire donated $320 to Noor’s reelection campaign. In late 2021, the state representative received $500 from Alishire’s jointly indicted business partner, Khadar Jigre Adan. Both contributions were handed back.
SOMALI COMMUNITY CARE PROVIDERS ARE VALUABLE SOURCE OF CAMPAIGN CASH FOR SOMALI POLITICIANS
Similar proposals that would renew funding for AEDS are currently advancing through the state legislature.
DEED did not respond to a request for comment.
