Who were the defendants convicted in the Minnesota Somali fraud cases and what were their roles?
Executive summary
The Minnesota fraud prosecutions have produced dozens of convictions tied to multiple schemes that prosecutors say bilked federal and state social-service programs, with reported conviction totals ranging from the high 50s to the mid-60s depending on the source [1] [2] [3]. Convicted defendants include named operators and vendors who pleaded guilty or lost at trial for roles that prosecutors describe as running sham childcare and food-distribution sites, fabricating invoices and attendance, recruiting participants for fraudulent autism and home-and-community-based services (HCBS) programs, and laundering proceeds [4] [5] [2] [6].
1. The headline numbers — how many convicted and why the counts differ
Reported conviction totals vary across outlets because the investigations are rolling and different updates use different cutoffs: AP reported 57 convictions at one point [1], CBS and other outlets cited 62 convictions [2] [6], and a House Oversight release referenced 64 convictions tied to broader Minnesota fraud probes [3]; these disparities reflect ongoing charges, pleas and additional indictments rather than a single unified tally.
2. Named defendants and their documented roles in the Feeding Our Future child‑nutrition case
Federal prosecutors have identified and secured guilty pleas or convictions against specific operators who allegedly exploited the child nutrition program known as “Feeding Our Future” and related sponsorships: Haji Osman Salad, Sharmarke Issa and Khadra Abdi pleaded guilty for roles in schemes that included falsely claiming millions of meals and using fraudulent food invoices and records to siphon federal Child Nutrition Program funds [4]. Court filings say Issa, as principal of Somali Community and Wacan Restaurant LLC, was a major recipient and used fabricated documentation to claim sites served large numbers of meals [4].
3. Convicted actors in autism‑services and HCBS schemes and a notable case reversal
Prosecutors separately charged and convicted defendants tied to autism therapy fraud, including Asha Farhan Hassan, who was charged in a $14 million autism fraud scheme for recruiting families into “Smart Therapy,” and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in that context, according to reporting [7] [2]. State-level charges in an HCBS contractor case named Abdifatah Yusuf and Lul Ahmed for an alleged $7.2 million scheme; Yusuf was convicted by a jury in August 2025 but that conviction was later overturned by a Hennepin County judge, illustrating that convictions have not been uniformly sustained [8].
4. Methods attributed to convicted defendants: invoices, attendance logs, kickbacks and sham sites
Across the cases, prosecutors describe consistent tactics by defendants later convicted: submitting fake invoices and attendance records, billing for meals or services never delivered, paying kickbacks to parents to enroll children in programs, and listing vacant storefronts or nonoperational day‑care addresses as service sites—methods documented in reporting on the Feeding Our Future and related investigations [5] [6] [2]. DOJ statements and indictments describe defendants claiming millions of meals and billing Medicaid and other programs for therapy or housing services that allegedly were not provided [4] [6].
5. The broader legal outcomes, investigations and political overlay
Beyond individual convictions, the Justice Department and congressional investigators have pursued scores of defendants and explored whether funds were diverted abroad, while multiple outlets note there is no clear evidence funds were directly sent to al‑Shabaab despite political claims [2] [6]. Republican officials and commentators have seized on the prosecutions to criticize state leadership and press for broader accountability [3] [9], and mainstream outlets warn the still‑evolving caseload and overturned verdicts caution against conflating charged or convicted individuals with an entire community [10] [1].