Campaign donations from people later charged
Campaign contributions from people later charged in the Feeding Our Future case. The rules for what is counted come first, then the list.
Method
These rules were set before the list was built.
- Match rule
- A contribution is included when the donor is named in the January 2022 FBI search warrant affidavits or was later charged in the Feeding Our Future prosecutions. A campaign-finance record or the cited reporting must also attribute the contribution to that person by name.
- Who was searched, and how
- Recipients are those identified by KARE 11’s September 2022 review of state and federal campaign records and by Sahan Journal’s January and February 2022 reporting, plus this site’s Federal Election Commission re-check of two federal receipts. Every recipient those outlets named is a DFL or Democratic candidate. This site has not itself searched every Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, county, and FEC filing for every defendant, so a recipient of any party that those outlets did not name would not appear here. A partial FEC search on October 11, 2026 (the first five defendant names) found only the committees already listed.
- Window
- Contributions from January 2021 (the earliest documented receipts) through May 2022 (the latest post-warrant receipt in the cited reporting). The scheme’s charged conduct spans 2020–2022.
- Donor disambiguation
- KARE 11 also reported contributions from Mekfira Hussein to the 2022 congressional campaign of Amane Badhasso (DFL), who lost in the primary. No amount was reported, so the campaign is not in the table. Names are matched as the cited records spell them. Common names and Somali naming conventions make wrong matches possible. Federal donations were re-checked against Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. State and city figures rely on the cited outlets’ own checks of Minnesota Campaign Finance Board and Hennepin County filings. No one is listed on a name match alone.
- What the action labels mean
- Returned: The campaign refunded the contribution to the donor, per filings or the campaign’s statement.
- Donated to charity: The campaign redirected an equal amount to third parties instead of refunding the donor.
- Stated intent: The official said the money would not be kept, but the cited reporting does not document the disposition.
- Not documented: The cited reporting documents the receipt but records no action either way. Absence of a documented action is not evidence the money was knowingly kept.
- Baseline
- Against each campaign’s own fundraising, the share varies widely. Frey’s $9,000 was about 1.3 percent of the $676,271 his campaign raised in 2021. Fateh’s $11,000, all returned, was about 27 percent of the $41,000 he raised in 2021.
The documented contributions
Contributions are listed largest first. Federal donations were checked against Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. State and city figures come from the cited news outlets' own records work.
Omar Fateh
Seven donations of $1,000 each from people named in the search warrants, two from donors tied to named companies, and two returned "out of an abundance of caution."
Jacob Frey
Nine donations of $1,000 each, the state maximum, from nine people later charged, per KARE 11’s September 2022 records review, which names them. Six of the nine ($6,000) were documented by Sahan Journal in January 2022, before anyone was charged. Those six arrived July 26–27, 2021, per Hennepin County filings.
Shukri Olow
Eight defendants gave a combined $8,750. The money did not stay in Minnesota.
Ilhan Omar
Three defendants, including two Safari Restaurant associates who gave $2,700 each in early 2021. Those two receipts are verified against Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, listed with this entry.
| Receipt date | Donor as filed | Committee | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 23, 2021 | Ahmed A. Ghedi | Ilhan for Congress | $2,700 |
| March 31, 2021 | Abdihakim Ahmed | Ilhan for Congress | $2,700 |
John Hoffman
Donations made by Mekfira Hussein and her associates, per KARE 11.
Keith Ellison
Liban Alishire donated $2,700 in May 2022, four months after the search warrants and after the Attorney General had sued Feeding Our Future. The only post-warrant receipt in this table.
John Thompson
One donation from Hanna Marekegn, who pleaded guilty on October 13, 2022 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, among the first three guilty pleas in the case.
People charged but not convicted are presumed innocent, and amounts labeled alleged come from charging documents, not proven losses. Method and corrections