A federal judge on Monday jailed a Feeding Our Future defendant after prosecutors said that he tried to “strong-arm” a cooperator out of testifying at his upcoming trial.
Abdiwahab Ahmed Mohamud, 35, is alleged to have been the chief document fabricator for S&S Catering, a key player in a scheme to fleece government child nutrition programs out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Qamar Hassan, the owner of the Lake Street business, pleaded guilty in 2023 to wire fraud and money laundering and testified in February at the trial of Feeding Our Future Founder Aimee Bock and restaurant owner Salim Said. The two are jailed and awaiting sentencing after jurors convicted them.
Hassan, 56, is also on the government's witness list for Mohamud's trial, which is set to begin with jury selection on Oct. 14. Opening statements are set for Oct. 20.
In a filing last week, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melinda Williams and Dan Bobier revealed that Hassan, whom they refer to as “Cooperator A,” told prosecutors and case agents that she is reluctant to testify after Mohamud approached her “on at least two occasions.”
Since a grand jury returned the first batch of four dozen indictments in the Feeding Our Future case in late 2022, prosecutors have generally not sought pretrial detention because the alleged crimes are nonviolent. But defendants must abide by a strict set of conditions, including not talking to any potential witnesses.
At a 90-minute hearing on Monday, FBI Special Agent Jared Kary testified that Hassan reported to investigators on Wednesday that she’d been approached by Mohamud during a chance encounter in an elevator at the Karmel Mall in Minneapolis sometime in early 2024.
While Hassan did not say she felt intimidated during that interaction, she allegedly said that Mohamud threatened her, cursed at her, and called her a “snitch” during a second encounter at the Mall of America’s Nickelodeon Universe in January or February.
“It was clear to me that she did not want to talk about it at all, because in my experience she didn’t want to disclose that she was scared,” Kary said, while not mentioning Hassan by name. “She’s intimidated by what’s going on. She’s genuinely scared.”
“This is unquestionably a violation of the court order of no contact,” Bobier said, emphasizing that Hassan is expected to be a key government witness. “Her ability to take the stand and testify truthfully, her testimony with respect to Mr. Mohamud is frankly devastating to any defenses you could raise at his trial.”
“There’s an ongoing attempt to corrupt the proceedings in these cases,” Bobier added, pointing to an earlier incident during Bock’s trial in which a defendant in a related case approached a cooperator in a courthouse hallway. Bobier also noted the 2024 attempt by several defendants in the first Feeding Our Future case to bribe a juror.
“Mr. Mohamud should not have to pay the price for what other people did,” responded defense attorney Jason Steck, who said that the allegations are “supported by absolutely nothing” and noted that the government did not bring forward any witnesses to corroborate what Hassan allegedly told prosecutors and case agents.
“There’s no investigation here,” Steck said. “The government has taken the previous instances and has reacted to that context rather than any degree of proof.”
Because the allegations against Mohamud involve violations of his release conditions and not the underlying fraud charges, a judge needs only to determine through “clear and convincing evidence” that he violated those conditions in order to revoke his pretrial release.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel said not only that Mohamud violated his release conditions, his alleged actions are an attack on the court system.
“It’s my responsibility to ensure a fair trial in this case,” Brasel said. “I cannot ensure a fair trial if witnesses are afraid to testify before a jury. “This district cannot stand for another proceeding in which the defendant attempts to undermine the integrity of our judicial system.”
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