Latest Feeding Our Future suspect arrested during alleged flee attempt to remain jailed, judge rules

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected an effort to have released from jail a newly charged Feeding Our Future fraud defendant who was arrested at the Twin Cities airport just before she could leave for the Middle East.

Hibo Daar, 50, of Eden Prairie, was arraigned in U.S. District Court after being charged last week with wire fraud in connection with the $250 million pay-for-play scheme to steal federal reimbursements meant to fund meals for low-income Twin Cities children after school and during the summer.

Daar entered a not guilty plea, and her attorney argued for Daar to be released from custody as the case moves forward. Judge David Schultz said no, leaving Daar jailed without bail ahead of a hearing on June 17.

“Ms. Daar is disappointed by this decision,” defense attorney Karen Mohrlant told the Star Tribune. “She maintains that she was not trying to flee prosecution and that, if released she would appear for court as required. ... I anticipate that she will exercise her right to appeal this detention decision.”

On May 22, as news surfaced of a federal raid in St. Paul of a supposed food distribution site related to the Feeding Our Future scheme, Daar booked a flight for May 25 from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, with a layover in Amsterdam, according to the indictment.

Her return was booked for June 2, but “individuals fleeing the country to avoid arrest or prosecution will often book round-trip airplane tickets to hide the fact that they do not intend to return to the United States,” the indictment pointed out.

The FBI arrested Daar at the Twin Cities airport before she could board.

Prosecutors allege that Daar and others used the ill-gotten money to buy luxury homes, cars and other items to enrich themselves in one of the largest pandemic-related fraud schemes in the country. Numerous fraud participants, including leader Aimee Bock, have been convicted.

Feeding Our Future was a “sponsor,” overseeing paperwork and federal reimbursements to nearly 300 food-distribution sites in the program. Prosecutors said some of the nonprofit’s employees, food sites and vendors were involved in kickbacks and bribes, relying on fake attendance sheets and phony invoices to inflate the number of meals they claimed to serve, raking in millions of dollars.

According to the indictment against Daar:

Daar, as executive director of the Northside Wellness Center at 970 E. Hennepin Av. in Minneapolis, claimed to have served hundreds of thousands of meals to children. In April 2021, she filed for reimbursement for about 5,600 meals every day.

“On every one of those days,” the charging document read, “Daar claims to have served exactly the same number of meals that were prepared that day. [Meaning] there is no day on which Daar’s operation purportedly prepared more meals than they distributed.”

From November 2020 through January 2023, Feeding Our Future deposited about $1.78 million in reimbursements into Northside’s bank account. “However, in that same period,” the indictment alleges, “Northside spent ... approximately less than $2,000 on food.”

In April 2025, law enforcement attempted to serve Northside Wellness with a grand jury subpoena for documents. Daar directed law enforcement to her attorney.

Law enforcement advised the attorney that Daar was the target of an investigation that could result in her being charged with one or more crimes and invited her and her counsel to a face-to-face interview. Her attorney declined the invitation and did not comply with the subpoena for court records.