By Lou Raguse, Kare 11

MINNEAPOLIS — When they raided a St. Paul nonprofit last week, federal investigators signaled that they aren’t finished charging new suspects in the $250 million pandemic meal fraud case known as Feeding our Future.

They may not have been quite ready to file the next round of charges, but were forced into action Sunday when they learned one woman they are targeting had booked a sudden international flight. The FBI arrested Hibo Daar at MSP before she could board that flight to Dubai. 

Court records show Daar claimed to serve 1 million meals to children while operating out of an office in a business center on East Hennepin Avenue. She collected $2.4 million in taxpayer money, but federal investigators believe her meal site, “Northside Wellness,” was fake and that she actually spent less than $2,000 on food.

According to the criminal complaint, Daar’s case included all the tell-tale signs of the sprawling fraud. She wrote checks to Hadith Ahmed, a Feeding our Future employee who’s already pleaded guilty and says checks like those were bribes.

There are emails Daar sent to Aimee Bock, the former executive director of Feeding our Future convicted by a jury this year, including meal count sheets the FBI says are fake.

In those meal counts, the complaint says that by April 2021, Daar claimed to be serving about 40,000 meals to children every week. 

After Bock was convicted, it was unclear whether the feds intended to charge any additional suspects in the case. But late last week, the FBI raided a St. Paul nonprofit called New Vision Foundation, signaling they aren’t finished.

As news of that raid spread, prosecutors say Daar booked a flight to Dubai, set to leave three days later. The FBI arrested her at the airport before she could board.

In court, prosecutors said they informed Daar in April that she was one of the new targets of their investigation. They told the judge they believe she tried to flee the country, thinking charges were coming soon.

Daar’s lawyer said in court that the defendant was traveling to visit her sick mother. But then she got caught in a lie, claiming she hadn’t traveled overseas since 2022. The prosecutors pulled out Daar’s passport and showed she had been traveling regularly since then.

Hibo Daar is now in the Sherburne County Jail pending a detention hearing set for Friday.

Source: Kare 11