MN fraud scandal: 6th family member who met with Keith Ellison to plead guilty

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and AG Keith Ellison (D) face questioning over an alleged $9 billion fraud. Critics accuse them of a cover-up, diverting funds meant for vulnerable citizens. Imagine that, a pair of Democrats being accused of covering up fraud.

Yet another member of a family within Minnesota’s Somali community is expected to plead guilty on Thursday in the massive fraud scandal that has drawn national attention and prompted criticism of Attorney General Keith Ellison over a meeting he held with members of the family in question. Let me repeat: Ellison met with members of the family in which one guy will likely plead guilty of fraud.

Gandi Mohamed, 45, (Probably D) is expected to either plead guilty at a change of plea hearing scheduled for Thursday or choose to enter a plea of no contest, which would allow him to accept conviction and be sentenced without admitting guilt, according to court records. No contest is as good as pleading guilty, but sounds better.

Mohamed is the sixth member of his family who would be pleading guilty in the scheme prosecutors say fraudulently claimed to be serving meals while instead pocketing $14 million from the federal child nutrition program, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.

Center of the American Experiment policy fellow Bill Glahn told Fox News Digital that "it’s good that he and his co-conspirators have all been convicted in the case, however, a courtroom trial would have been a useful exercise to show the public the scope and scale of the fraud."   

The Mohamed family was present at the now infamous 2021 meeting between Ellison and members of the Somali community where would-be fraudsters could be heard asking the state's attorney general to help them secure more funding, before the conversation turned to campaign donations.

"The only way that we can protect what we have is by inserting ourselves into the political arena. Putting our votes where it needs to be. But most importantly, putting our dollars in the right place. And supporting candidates that will fight to protect our interests," one of the Somali community members says in the recording.

"That's right," Ellison responds.

Ellison has denied any wrongdoing regarding the recording, saying he was completely unaware of the fraudsters' crimes at the time of the meeting. [And if you believe that, you might be interested in a bridge I have for sale in Brooklyn]. The meeting occurred before any convictions in the case and before President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice had indicted anyone."I took a meeting in good faith with people I didn’t know and some turned out to have done bad things. I did nothing for them and took nothing from them," Ellison wrote in an April 2025 op-ed for the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Following that meeting, Gandi gave the maximum $2,500 campaign donation to Ellison that the attorney general returned to the Department of Justice in 2025.

"Our Attorney General, Keith Ellison, is not only looking the other way but doing so after taking donations from these very fraudsters," Republican Dalia al-Aqidi who is running for Congress in Minneapolis against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) told Fox News Digital. "This is a betrayal of every Minnesotan who trusted him with that office."

Al-Aqidi explained that the voters in her district are "furious" about the fraud scandal.

"Which is why I've rolled out a five-point plan to prevent fraud before it starts," al-Aqidi said. "This isn't just about taxpayers, it's about people who really need food and housing. Preventing fraud isn't complicated, it just takes the political will to stop this type of abuse. It's clear that this scheme is being used to buy votes, and that has to stop."

Thank you for following Brain Flushings. You can support my work by checking out the sponsors on this page. It really helps. You can even click on Buy Me A Coffee in the sidebar if you want to show your appreciation. It helps to keep me going, but really, there's  no pressure.

Tweet

The Racism Card: How Democrats Shielded Massive Fraud in Minnesota's Somali Community

If there's one thing Democrats love more than taxpayer money, it's weaponizing accusations of "racism" to shut down any scrutiny of their pet projects. And nowhere has that been more evident than in the exploding fraud scandal rocking Minnesota, where billions in social program funds, much of it tied to the state's large Somali community, vanished while politicians like Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, and Ilhan Omar looked the other way or actively deflected.

Fox News Digital talked to experts who laid it bare: State Sen. Mark Koran, former prosecutor Joe Teirab, and columnist Dustin Grage all pointed to how screams of "racism" provided perfect cover for fraudsters in Minneapolis.

Rumors of fraud in the city's booming Somali community have swirled for over a decade. But dare question it? You're a bigot, according to Democrat elected officials who dismissed any criticism as hatred toward immigrants. Stories about Somali fraud rings were labeled "racist" and buried.

"The whole story kind of died under these accusations that people were being racist," Bill Glahn, policy fellow with Center of the American Experiment, told the outlet. "Oh, maybe somebody stole a little bit here, a little bit there, but there's nothing systemic going on."Classic deflection. And it worked like a charm.

Former assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Teirab, who prosecuted cases in the Feeding Our Future scandal, described how fraud suspects played the race card shamelessly. In one secretly recorded meeting with AG Keith Ellison, they claimed investigators were only going after them "because of race."

Teirab wasn't having it; this was a calculated move to intimidate and obstruct.

"It provided cover," Teirab told Fox News Digital. "Fraudsters knew the issue of race and racism was something they could use as a cudgel… It's disrespectful to use those terms when they're not appropriate, especially in a case where fraud clearly happened." And it dilutes accusations of actual racism.

Even a juror in one trial got hit with a $120,000 bribe attempt, complete with messages framing the whole probe as racist. The goal? Not just dodge jail, but poison the well and scare off anyone daring to follow the money.

State Sen. Mark Koran (R) put it bluntly: Investigators don't chase demographics, they follow evidence. If the fraud landed disproportionately in one community, that's because that's where the crooks were operating, not some targeted persecution.

"The average Minnesotan, average legislator, doesn't care who's committing the fraud," Koran said. "All right, the evidence will lead you either to or from the perpetrator. And so, if the evidence leads to the perpetrator, we need to prosecute all of them."

But pursuing that evidence meant getting smeared as racist. Fraudsters got so bold they sued the state to keep the cash flowing despite glaring red flags.

"For the average hardworking legal U.S. citizen doing everything right," Koran said, "it’s a disgusting disservice… knowing there’s such blatant disregard for the value of that dollar."

The scale is mind-boggling. 

Federal prosecutions might hit $2 billion, but Koran says total losses across programs could be far higher when you factor in waste and outright theft. Families raked in kickbacks from fake autism providers, and investigators are too overwhelmed to chase it all. Low risk, massive reward.

State agencies "cowering in fear" of the racist label, as Glahn put it. Politicians know getting tagged with it is a "career kiss of death." A legislative auditor's report even admitted Department of Education officials went easy on nonprofits over fears of racism accusations and bad press.Then there's the media complicity. Conservative reporters pitched Feeding Our Future stories only to get shut down by editors terrified of the "racist" backlash.

"In newsrooms, they're told, ‘We can’t run that because we're going to be accused of being racist,'" Grage explained.

Remember when Minnesota's Department of Education spotted fraud and paused payments? Local pols like Omar Fateh and Jamal Osman cried racism, sued the state (and lost), but the damage was done; payments resumed. And Gov. Tim Walz had subpoena power to dig into bank records but sat on his jazz hands.

Why the hesitation? 

Politics, of course. As Glahn explained, the Somali community is concentrated in key areas, including Ilhan Omar's district. Their monolithic Democrat voting bloc swings close elections statewide and in primaries.

"The Somali community is very concentrated in Minnesota and very concentrated in Ilhan Omar's congressional district, and a few other pockets where the Somali vote swings elections, and at the state level, they're big enough that we've had some super close elections at the state level, and the Somali vote is very monolithic, votes Democrat," Glahn explained.

No wonder no one wanted to rock the boat. Fraudsters exploited the fear, taxpayers got fleeced for billions, and the vulnerable kids these programs were supposed to help suffered the most. As Minnesota picks up the pieces, the takeaway is clear: Real accountability demands guts, to chase the evidence no matter where it leads and brush off the inevitable race-baiting distractions. 

Democrats' obsession with identity politics didn't just enable fraud; it supercharged it. And hardworking Americans paid the price.

If you like Brain Flushings and want to Buy Me a Coffee, I would appreciate it, as it supports my work. Obviously, there is no pressure but I certainly wouldn't stop you. Imagine, you could be the first on your block to do that and your friends will thank you . . . for some reason.

Tweet