Man connected to Feeding Our Future investigation pleads guilty to passport fraud

Krystal Frasier KSTP

Mohamed Jama Ismail booking photo (Sherburne Co. Jail)

Court documents show a Minnesota man who is connected to an ongoing investigation into Feeding Our Future has entered a guilty plea to passport fraud.

According to an agreement, Mohamed Jama Ismail, of Isanti, entered the plea late last month.

The charge carries multiple penalties, including a maximum of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and supervised release of up to three years.

As previously reported, the criminal complaint says while executing a search warrant related to the Feeding Our Future investigation, authorities seized Ismail’s passport.

Prosecutors allege that Ismail, a native Somali who immigrated to the U.S. and later gained citizenship in 2005, later applied for a new passport, claiming he had “lost” it at home. He also said he had filed a police report, the criminal complaint states, even though he hadn’t. Still, the U.S. State Department issued Ismail a new passport on March 22, 2022.

Ismail then tried to use that fraudulently obtained passport to board a flight leaving Rochester International Airport en route to Nairobi, Kenya, with stops in Minneapolis and Amsterdam, according to court records. Ismail had previously told investigators he owns three properties in Nairobi and that his wife and five children all live there.

FBI agents arrested Ismail as he boarded his flight to Amsterdam at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. He had five checked bags that were taken off the plane and brought into possession of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

As of this publishing, a sentencing date had not been scheduled for Ismail.