Omar Jamal, who spent three decades positioning himself as Minnesota's Somali community voice, operated as a paid informant while simultaneously collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very fraudsters he was reporting to the FBI.
Jamal served as a consultant to at least six associates implicated in the Feeding Our Future scheme, a sprawling federal fraud that saw dozens of fake food distributors steal over $250 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds intended for children's meals. Most of the co-conspirators were Somali-born.
According to meeting notes obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune, Jamal met with the FBI on multiple occasions months before the investigation became public in 2022. He implicated a dozen individuals or companies that federal prosecutors later indicted.
But Jamal also pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from the same convicted associates, the Star Tribune reported. Anab Awad, who pleaded guilty to stealing $9.7 million from the meal program, told federal agents that Jamal promised her protection from prosecution in exchange for payment. "I'm the boss. Nobody's coming to you guys. You're safe," Awad recalled Jamal telling her. She paid him nearly $100,000.
Awad later told FBI agents that Jamal flashed a sheriff's badge, demanded payment for "protection," and threatened to call authorities if she refused. She also said Jamal informed her when FBI raids occurred at Feeding Our Future distribution sites.
Jamal's position gave him credibility. Since 2020, he has worked as a civilian community service officer in the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, earning almost $70,000 annually as a liaison to the Somali community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. National media outlets including CNN and ABC routinely presented him as a trusted community figure, and he regularly issued statements on issues ranging from Islamic terrorism to fraud cases.
