One day after allegations of witness tampering in the latest Feeding Our Future trial, that witness for the government testified about what happened in the hallway outside a federal courtroom in Minneapolis.

Sharmake Jama described being approached by a man connected to defendant Salim Said, co-owner of Safari Restaurant. Said and Bock are accused of defrauding the government out of millions of Child Nutrition Program funds.

As 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported, Jama was outside the courtroom waiting to testify on Tuesday when a man believed to be a relative of Said approached him and asked to go to the bathroom together.

“He just said, ‘Can we talk in the bathroom?'” Jama told jurors. “He was slurring his speech but I could hear him saying, ‘Let’s talk.'”

Jama added that he declined the man’s offer.

Judge Brasel ordered the U.S. Marshals to investigate the incident at the federal courthouse.

Last year, multiple defendants and their associates were accused of attempting to bribe a juror during another trial related to Feeding Our Future. On Wednesday, Brasel ordered that Feeding Our Future defendants with pending cases be banned from the courtroom where the current trial is happening.

On the witness stand, Jama told jurors about his involvement in the multi-million dollar fraud scheme, admitting to collecting millions while falsely claiming to feed thousands of children per day from his Brava Restaurant in Rochester.

With the $5.6 million his family gained from falsely reporting his meal counts, Jama said they bought two houses, a car and property in Turkey. Several of his family members have also been charged in the Feeding Our Future case.

Jama also detailed several visits to the mansion Said used for businesses — Jama said he would go there for meetings, to drop off meal counts and to pick up checks.

Jurors also heard from FBI Special Agent Travis Wilmer, who described fraud occurring at Feeding Our Future-sponsored sites in St. Cloud and Waite Park. He testified about the seemingly too-perfect attendance at the sites, which claimed thousands of meals daily with few absences — even on holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Earlier Wednesday, two women testified about a Feeding Our Future site in Willmar. Amal Muse, a former community service officer with the Willmar Police Department, said she patrolled the area of StigmaFree Willmar, run out of Faafan Restaurant daily, and never saw lines of children or vehicles waiting for meals. Becky Christianson worked at an office nearby Faafan and also said she never saw lines waiting for food. The Willmar site claimed to be serving 3,000 children per day.

You can find KSTP’s full coverage of the Feeding Our Future case here.