Saturday February 22, 2025
by Joey Peters

The federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis pictured on May 5, 2022. Credit: Ben Hovland | Sahan Journal

The co-owner of a Minneapolis catering company testified Thursday that she feels shame every day for her role in an estimated $250 million fraud scheme.

“We weren’t thinking straight at the time,” Qamar Hassan testified through tears. “We were just hunting money, and it was not good.”

Qamar Hassan’s company, S&S Catering, purported to supply thousands of meals a day to at least four different food sites. One of the sites was located upstairs from S&S Catering’s headquarters, and was run by her daughter, Filsan Hassan. Qamar Hassan and Filsan Hassan previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

Qamar Hassan said she enrolled her own company and helped enroll her daughter into the federal child nutrition programs at a time when both were experiencing hardship. 

“She’s divorced,” a tearful Qamar Hassan said of her daughter. “She didn’t have a car, she didn’t have anything. I thought I would help her.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson asked her if enrolling in the food program ended up helping her daughter. No, she said.

“She hates me for it,” Qamar Hassan said emotionally. 

Qamar Hassan’s testimony came in the second week of testimony in the trial of Feeding Our Future’s former executive director, Aimee Bock, and former Safari Restaurant co-owner Salim Said. Both are on trial as alleged leaders in the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation. 

The alleged fraud involved sponsor organizations like Feeding Our Future receiving federal funds through the Minnesota Department of Education. The sponsor organizations then distributed those funds to food vendors like S&S Catering, and food sites which were supposed to provide ready-to-eat meals to local children. 

The fraud was simple in its foundation: Several organizations in the money chain reported serving thousands more meals than they actually did, or simply never served any at all in order to receive more federal reimbursement dollars, according to prosecutors.

Qamar Hassan said she enrolled her company into the food program through Feeding Our Future in the fall of 2020 after hearing that other people in the Somali community were getting rich from it. 

“People were buying cars and homes and everything,” testified Qamar Hassan, who personally profited more than $5 million from the federal child nutrition programs. 

She said she had closed S&S Catering earlier that year because of COVID restrictions.

It helped, she testified, that her business partner, Sahra Nur, was already friends with Bock. Sahra Nur was recruiting Somali-owned daycares and adult daycare centers at the time to enroll into the food program with Feeding Our Future. Sarha Nur previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

Qamar Hassan testified that throughout her company’s participation in the fraud, she met with Bock personally two times. In the first meeting, Bock referred Qamar to Abdikerm Eidleh, another Feeding Our Future employee. She testified that Abdikerm Eidleh gave her instructions on how to report meals served in order to obtain federal funding.

Abdikerm Eidleh didn’t outright tell her to commit fraud, Qamar Hassan testified, but did tell her that she could start claiming to supply 5,000 meals a day. She said the number surprised her, and that she was also instructed to mark the meals as dinners, because Safari Restaurant, which was located a block away, was already claiming to serve 5,000 lunches a day. 

Abdikerm Eidleh was charged with several crimes in the case, and has been out of the country. 

Kenneth Udoibok, Bock’s attorney, emphasized during cross-examination that Qamar Hassan only met Bock twice, and that Bock didn’t instruct her to commit fraud. He also asked Qamar Hassan, who doesn’t speak proficient English and doesn’t read or write, whether she was afraid of her business partner, Sahra Nur.  Qamar Hassan had testified earlier that Sahra Nur is more educated and speaks better English.

“Not afraid, but she’s older than me and she helped me get the money to open [S&S Catering],” Qamar Hassan said. “That’s why I give her respect.”

Udoibok also asked whether she ever told Feeding Our Future staff that the number of meals S&S Catering reported serving were not genuine. 

“They have a brain,” she said. “They know.”

During Qamar Hassan’s testimony, prosecutors also showed a video of a celebration that several people who profited from Feeding Our Future threw for Bock. The event was held after Bock got the Minnesota Department of Education to reopen federal payments in the food program; the department had become suspicious about potential fraud and had stopped the flow of money to several food sites.

The party occurred at a banquet hall that Qamar Hassan and several others purchased for $5 million with the federal food-aid money. The video shows several Somali women performing gabay, or a traditional Somali chant, to celebrate Bock. They then present Bock with a plaque. Throughout the celebration, one of the women repeatedly calls Bock “sweet girl Aimee.” 

One of the women in the video is Sahra Nur, Qamar Hassan testified, adding that she herself also attended the party.

“Were you happy for the kids when you threw this party?” Thompson asked.

“No,” she replied.

“What were you happy for?” he asked. 

“The money,” she said.