A judge has ordered a defendant from Minneapolis in an upcoming trial over the Feeding Our Future scandal to be jailed over allegations of witness tampering.

According to court records, a judge revoked the pre-trial release for 30-year-old Abdinasir Mahamed Abshir for his alleged "attempt to tamper with and intimidate a government witness."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson last week accused Abshir of approaching a witness in the courthouse hallway during the trial of Aimee Bock, the founder of Feeding Our Future and alleged ringleader of the fraud. Abshir allegedly asked to speak to the witness in a bathroom. According to court documents, the witness "felt intimidated" and understood that Abshir was "trying to intimidate him."

The witness then returned to the witness room with his lawyer and confirmed, using a photograph, that Abshir was the man who had approached him. Abshir was scheduled to meet with his pretrial release supervisor that day, but he failed to appear for the mandatory meeting, documents say.

When law enforcement agents went to Abshir's apartment, the residents of the apartment informed them that they had just recently moved in, and Abshir was not living there. The court then revoked Abshir's pretrial release.

Subsequently, the judge ordered defendants in all upcoming cases tied to Feeding Our Future to stay away from her courtroom. Bock and her co-defendant, Salim Said, have also been ordered not to speak with any witnesses or co-defendants in the case.  

Abshir has a detention and bond revocation hearing scheduled for Friday. He is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, federal programs bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering. Abshir ran a site that allegedly received about $5 million in fraudulent federal funds meant to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abshir is set to stand trial with several co-defendants in August. He is in custody at the Sherburne County Jail.

The first trial in connection with the fraud was marred by an alleged attempt by some defendants and people linked with them to bribe a juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash. The juror went straight to police. Five people were arrested and charged in that case.

Prosecutors have called the Feeding Our Future scheme, in which $250 million was allegedly stolen, one of the largest pandemic fraud cases in the country.