The Minnesota Department of Revenue (MDR) announced last week that two married couples have been charged with a combined 26 felonies after investigators uncovered what authorities describe as a years-long tax fraud scheme
One of the couples, Ali Farah Egal and Fardous Jama Egal, were each charged with seven counts of filing false or fraudulent individual income tax returns. Meanwhile, Abdirisak Abdirahman Abdulle was charged with 10 counts of filing false or fraudulent income tax returns. His wife, Samsam Gatah, was charged with two counts of the same crime
Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both. All four cases are being charged in Hennepin County
According to MDR, members of the group were associated with multiple business that were all registered at the same Minneapolis address. Those businesses included Egal Properties LLC, Ruwayda Kitchen, MN Best, and Professional PCA Services LLC
MDR said the criminal complaints in the case “describe underreporting and nonfiling tax issues for the businesses associated with these individuals and uncovered a network of family‑controlled businesses used to hide personal spending and avoid taxes, with significant income coming from public childcare and nutrition programs.”
The complaints say one of the businesses had a contract with the Minnesota Department of Education to participate in the Child and Adult Food Care Program. That agreement was reportedly sponsored by Aimee Bock, the ringleader of the Feeding Our Future scheme
“According to the complaints, these businesses routinely contracted with each other and moved large sums of money between accounts tied to the defendants,” MDR wrote
Additionally, the state agency said “the complaints allege that businesses failed to file corporate tax returns for multiple periods while all the defendants also failed to claim the financial distributions from the business accounts on their individual income tax returns.”
Charges say the Egals brought in millions between 2019 and 2024 and owe over $356,000 in taxes to the State of Minnesota. Similarly, charges against Abdulle and Gatah say they brought in millions between 2019 and 2024 and owe over $777,000 in state taxes
