Feeding our Future: 2 more defendants plead guilty to wire fraud

Full Investigation Transcript

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We are following several plea hearings in the sprawling feeding our future fraud scheme. Some suspects appeared in court within the last couple of hours and they have entered p for their alleged roles in the fraud. So Rob Olsen is joining us now. Rob was in the courtroom today. Rob, you’re at the courthouse right now. Just kind of talk us through uh your day since this morning and what has happened there at the courthouse. Yeah, this is a federal court in Minneapolis where uh you know the other hearings and trials that I have covered for the feeding our future related um prosecutions have occurred. Um today there were three appearances um on a total of seven people that were included on the same indictment, an indictment about two years ago uh that put seven people in a group because the way that they prosecute a lot of the feeding our future cases is they’re doing them in groups of people. And you know, as you’ll recall, I think uh you know, I’ll have to um do the math again today as part of this story, but it was you know, more than 70 people indicted in total. Um you know, there were two different trials that I covered with prosecutions. They have lumped people together that are sort of connected. So there was a group of seven indicted together. Um three appeared today, four will appear on Friday. Um, of the three today, one did not accept a plea agreement from the prosecution. It was offered. It had expired today uh when the hearing started confirmed that they were not taking the plea deal. Two others though, a husband and wife did take a plea deal, agreeing to plead guilty to a single count of wire fraud each. The four that are appearing on Friday, uh, you know, you would you would guess that they’re getting sort of the same plea deal. Um the sentencing dates um are not set yet at this point, but um still would carry um likely several years in federal prison plus restitution. Uh the the amounts we heard today were over a million dollars each. » And Rob, I think that total number we have 79 people. Does that sound about right? Uh » that sounds about right. Yeah. Yeah. There have been a number that have been added to it. you know, it’s so of the original indictments that came out several years ago and then you there have been others that have added along the way, but 79 sounds about right. Um so yeah, it um so this is a again a group of seven indicted together originally two years ago that now six of the seven uh at least two of them today did and four more anticipated at least it’s scheduled that way in the court calendar is change of plea hearings. So, six of the seven taking plea deals. Um, the first one up today, the judge had even said here, let me pull up my notes from the court uh room. Um, this was, um, Gandhi Ysef Muhammad uh, is his name. Um, he had been offered again a plea deal to a single count of wire fraud in exchange to drop all the remaining counts. Um, that plea deal expired at the beginning of the hearing. The judge asked him saying, “Hey, the other six defendants that are indicted with you are all scheduled for either today or Friday to plead guilty.” He confirmed the judge. He declined the deal and she told him, “All right, we’ll see you in April.” That trial set for April 7th, but now again set to be for one defendant instead of a group of of seven. » And Rob, I know you’ve been covering this for a while. Is that something that was expected? Um, you mean that the plea deals would occur or that the one would reject the plea deal? » That the one would reject the plea deal to then be in front of a jury » that I, you know, that I don’t know where that came from. Um, you know, because you’ve seen a number of these where um especially after the last um convictions now about a year ago when when Amy Bach, who is sort of the alleged ring leader, you know, who founded Feeding Our Future, and a number of others were indicted. After that, a number of other people that had been indicted began changing their pleas and and taking plea offers. Um, so some of that was expected. It isn’t a bit unusual that you have a group of seven indicted together because of their connections. I mean, many of them are family members. Um, that you would have one opting to take a plea deal when the six others did. So, I’m got the indictment here. um kind of rereading through to see what the various components here for the the seven people are to see if there’s anything that jumps out here for this one person to not take a plea deal when the other six do. » Yeah. And I know you got a lot to sift through there, but Rob, something else that I think kind of seems into that to the headlines here is the staffing changes, right? It’s something that we have been uh reporting on in relation to some of the federal prosecutors, the US attorney’s office. I know that was a big headline that we’ve been following over the last couple of weeks is, you know, we’ve seen kind of this what we were calling max mass exodus of people who were uh leaving and and if they would be able to have, you know, the proper people in place for to stand for, you know, uh » trials like this and for um you know, court cases like this. Is it is that you think have we changed in any way or is there enough to to get a fair use, you know, for all the fair? Well, I I think, you know, I mean, a couple of things have changed and a couple haven’t. One are that um um you know, the two prosecutors that I saw on the court today are two that I had not seen before connected with this case cuz they’re relatively recently added to this. the the uh prosecutors that I had uh known from the other hearings and from the trials uh that included Harry Thompson um have all resigned here in you know in couple of months ago in light of the the issues they had with the immigration enforcement. So, um, so these are are new prosecutors to the case, uh, not necessarily new to the US attorney’s office here, though. And so much of this, again, this this indictment in this case, it came out two years ago. There was a superseding indictment, and basically in court terms, that just means uh, an amended indictment. You know, some other things added to that that came out um, last year, maybe last fall. But so much of the work had already been done, the indictments and the evidence gathering, etc. It’s just a matter for these other attorneys that may not have been involved in the initial prosecutions of others to get up to speed with everything. Um, but again, this is cases that have been going on, investigations for several years, so there’s a lot of that there um that they can familiarize themselves with and forge ahead. » Yeah. And you mentioned six of seven taking plea deals today. What’s what’s on tap for the rest of the day while you’re there at the courthouse? » Well, the there’s there’s just the three that appeared today. Again, the first said declined a plea offer and so there’s an April 7th trial date. The next two, husband and wife, by the way, um both accepted a plea offer of a single count of wire fraud. The first person that declined the offer is the brother of the woman that took it then alongside her husband today. So, um, the judge in terms of feeding our future related prosecutions, that’s done for today. But again, four more of these defendants on the calendar for Friday morning here. All listed on that calendar as change of plea hearing. » And I imagine you might be there, Robson. » You’ve been covering us for quite a while, my friend. » I’m guessing I will be. Yes. Yes. [laughter] » We appreciate it. Appreciate your work, too. Of course. If there’s anyone I need to talk about a feeding feeding our future, it is Rob Olson. I can tell. » Yeah, it’s it’s I’ve done a lot of it, covered quite a few quite a bit of it. Um but um and again, there’s so many defendants that I have now lost count. And that’s the homework that I need to do is to make that spreadsheet or update the spreadsheet that I had of of the people charged versus those who’ve uh taken plea deals or been found guilty. » Yeah, there’s a lot to get through, but we appreciate it. Thanks, Rob. » You bet.