A U.S. charity touted by the National Football League and prominent Muslim influencers has been found operating under an address shared with a shell company central to a massive fraud scandal that stole $250 million from a federal program providing free meals to poor Minnesota children.
The Human Development Fund (HDF), founded in 2023, claims to deliver “hot meals” to orphans in Gaza but has undisclosed connections to the Feeding Our Future scheme—a conspiracy involving over 80 people who defrauded the government of $250 million. HDF’s founder and CEO, Abdirahman Kariye, serves as an imam at Dar Al-Farooq, a predominantly Somali mosque near Minneapolis that functioned as a food distribution site for Feeding Our Future. HDF’s director of fundraising events, Khalid Omar, is also a director of Dar Al-Farooq.
In June 2021, Kariye and Omar publicly celebrated Aimee Bock—the mastermind behind Feeding Our Future—as an “outstanding leader” in Minnesota communities at an award ceremony for her role in the fraud scheme. Video evidence shows Omar emceed the event while praising Bock as a “furious fighter” for the initiative and accusing Minnesota’s education department of obstructing food distribution tied to the fraud. The gathering concluded with Somali women chanting “Sweet Aimee” around Bock.
HDF’s unreported ties to Feeding Our Future raise serious concerns, particularly as it has become one of the largest U.S. charities operating in Gaza. HDF raised $33 million in its first full year of operations and is poised for significant funding through the NFL’s “My Cause My Cleats” program. Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, Baltimore Ravens safety Sanoussi Kane, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Josh Palmer, influencer Sami Hamdi, and commentator Shaun King—all aligned with HDF—have hosted fundraisers at the charity’s expense, including December 2024 events costing $15 per ticket.
The connections became public after Mukhtar Shariff, a Dar Al-Farooq member convicted of laundering $40 million through shell company Afrique Hospitality, was indicted in September 2022. Shariff used the same address as one listed by HDF for its Minnesota office—a detail uncovered by the Washington Free Beacon. Kariye and Omar testified at Shariff’s May 2024 trial, where prosecutors accused Kariye of falsely claiming food distribution occurred seven days a week. Dar Al-Farooq and Shariff previously claimed to serve 3,500 meals daily, totaling 1,943,378 meals in 2021—a figure later proven false after federal investigators found the fraudsters billed for millions of unprepared meals.
Shariff testified that he had known Kariye for over a decade and introduced him to Feeding Our Future through Mahad Ibrahim, a fellow fraudster described as a “respected” elder at Dar Al-Farooq. Hadith Ahmed, a top Feeding Our Future official, admitted in court testimony that he received “kickbacks” to favor Dar Al-Farooq during the scheme. A Bloomington school official who coordinated with Feeding Our Future revealed that Omar pressured her to falsely claim Dar Al-Farooq distributed 3,000 meals daily—a figure vastly overstated and later discredited.
Kariye and Omar have not faced criminal allegations themselves, nor has Dar Al-Farooq or HDF. The NFL has not publicly commented on the matter.