I know, I know - you are SHOCKED!
A Somali immigrant who became the chair of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority just pled guilty to federal wire fraud. Sharmarke Issa, the first East African to hold the office, apparently thought that the best way to make his mark was by scamming millions from a program meant to feed hungry kids.
It's the new American Dream!
Issa wasn't just dabbling in small-time crime, though. No, he went for gold, facilitating a whole money laundering operation through fake vendors. Issa and his co-defendants, who are scheduled to go on trial later this year, allegedly siphoned off millions from the Feeding Our Future (FOF) program, whose goal it is to feed needy children.
We covered the $250 million FOF scheme back in 2022:
In Issa's world, this involved using the funds to buy himself a $700,000 house.
According to court documents, he and his buddies ran shell companies and took the Minnesota Department of Health for over $7.4 million. I mean, that's not just dipping into the cookie jar — that's eating the whole bakery.
Prosecutors say the whole scam cost the federal government about $50 million, meaning Issa took the saying, "Go big or go home" a little too literally — even the "home" in this case was bought with stolen money.
The guy also ran a restaurant called Wacan Restaurant LLC, serving up fraud on the side, and even claimed $341,000 from one of his co-defendants, Haji Osman, was just a "donation" that somehow ended up in his bank account. I wish I had friends like that …
Issa has agreed to serve somewhere between two and three-and-a-half years in prison and pay back about $3.6 million.
He resigned from his position back in February 2022, right when this federal investigation started heating up, saying it was for "personal matters" — I guess by "personal matters" he meant "I personally stole a ton of money and I'm about to get caught."
On the plus side, at least Issa never married Ilhan Omar.
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