Feeding Our Future scheme: Woman sentenced to 3.5 years; 4 more defendants plead guilty

A flurry of new developments in the sprawling Feeding Our Future case came down on Friday, with one defendant learning her prison sentence and four others pleading guilty to their roles in the $250 million fraud scheme.

Nonprofit head sentenced

In federal court, Sharon Denise Ross, 54, of Willernie was sentenced to three and a half years (43 months) on Friday after she had pleaded guilty last year to one count of wire fraud. She was originally indicted on 12 counts, including wire fraud and money laundering.

Ross was the executive director of House of Refuge Twin Cities, a St. Paul nonprofit that enrolled in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition. Prosecutors say she claimed to run a dozen meal sites throughout the metro, serving thousands of children daily with food provided by Minneapolis restaurant Brava Café.

The owner of Brava Café, Hanna Marakegn, was among the first Feeding Our Future defendants to plead guilty.

Ross spoke to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS in May 2022, a few months after House of Refuge’s sponsors had been cut off from receiving further reimbursements.

“It’s devastating to know that we were doing a program that was benefiting so many families so that their children could eat a good, nutritious meal every night,” Ross said at the time.

Investigators, however, found Ross had grossly exaggerated the number of children her nonprofit served.

From September 2021 through February 2022, Ross claimed to have served 900,000 meals through House of Refuge, receiving $2.4 million in reimbursements. Court documents state she sent thousands of those funds to family members and used the rest to fund a life of luxury, including vacations to Florida and Las Vegas and to purchase her home in Willernie.

At the sentencing on Friday, Judge Nancy Brasel said Ross “used a position of trust in the community” for her own “flagrant personal gain.” At the conclusion of her prison sentence, Ross will be placed on three years of supervised probation.

4 more guilty pleas

Also on Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota announced four more Feeding Our Future defendants had submitted guilty pleas throughout the week.

Abduljabar Hussein, 44, of Shakopee, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud after he and his wife, Mekfira Hussein, defrauded $8.8 million through the nonprofit Shamsia Hopes. Mekfira Hussein pleaded guilty last week to the same crime.

The Husseins used the money to pay off the mortgage on their Shakopee home and purchase new cars, including a Porsche, a GMC truck and a Tesla. As part of the plea agreement, they will forfeit those vehicles, the $173,438 that was applied to their mortgage and the rest of the money they had defrauded.

Three other defendants, Zamzam Jama, 50, of Rochester; Mustafa Jama, 48, of Rochester; and Asha Jama, 42, of Lakeville, all pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering for establishing shell companies to disburse ill-gotten funds they received through the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

Prosecutors say the trio deposited more than $2.3 million into shell companies and then used that money on personal spending “that had nothing to do with feeding children.” The defendants are accused of using federal funds to purchase properties in Minnesota, Ohio and on Turkey’s Mediterranean Coast.

Mustafa Jama’s wife, Ayan Jama, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering last week.

Sentencings for these four defendants will be set at a later time.

Out of 70 defendants charged in the Feeding Our Future case, 33 have now entered guilty pleas; another five were convicted at trial. Opening statements in the trial of two other defendants — Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and Safari Restaurant owner Salim Said — are scheduled for Monday.