Frequently Asked Questions

Mind Foundry Learning, Inc. was a Minnesota-based STEM education organization that operated from 2016 to 2022. We provided afterschool programming, summer camps, and online learning to K-8 students in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Over seven years, we served 2,207 students across 20 locations, employed 103 staff members, and delivered 293,644 hours of programming in coding, robotics, game design, and digital literacy.

ThinkTechAct was the original name of the organization. It was established as a hybrid structure—a for-profit and nonprofit working together—inspired by the Aravind Eye Care System in India.

Mahad Ibrahim spent a summer at Aravind on a fellowship and was inspired by their cross-subsidization model, where revenue from paying patients funds free care for those who cannot pay. ThinkTechAct aimed to apply a similar model to STEM education: revenue from contracts and paying families would subsidize free programming in underserved communities.

Mind Foundry was incorporated on December 26, 2016. Programming began in early 2017. The organization operated continuously until January 2022.

This timeline matters: Mind Foundry existed and operated for three to four years before COVID-19 and before any involvement with the federal food program. The prosecution's theory that this was a "shell company" created to launder funds ignores years of documented operations.

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a USDA program that reimburses organizations for meals served to children. Understanding its structure is essential to understanding this case, because nearly every article about Mind Foundry gets it wrong.

The program has four distinct roles:

In this case: Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition were the sponsors. Empire Cuisine was the food vendor. ThinkTechAct/Mind Foundry was the enrichment provider.

This is not our characterization. It is the structure defined by USDA regulations and confirmed by the government's own witness at trial — Emily Honer, Director of Food and Nutrition Services at the Minnesota Department of Education.

The USDA's own CACFP At-Risk Afterschool Meals Handbook defines this role:

"Institutions may contract with other organizations, including a for-profit entity, to provide enrichment or educational activities required for the Afterschool Program. However, the sponsor or independent center must retain administrative and fiscal responsibility for the meal service." — USDA CACFP At-Risk Afterschool Meals Handbook, Page 8

This is what Mind Foundry was: an organization contracted to provide STEM educational activities for children. Under USDA regulations, even when an enrichment provider is involved, the sponsor retains all responsibility for meal service — administrative responsibility, fiscal responsibility, and compliance with federal regulations.

Mind Foundry provided enrichment. The sponsors ran the meal program.

The sponsors did — not Mind Foundry.

This was established at trial by the government's own witness. Emily Honer, Director of Food and Nutrition Services at MDE, testified:

"Q. So the sponsor submits the claims?
A. The sponsor does." — Trial testimony, Lines 10977-10978

"MDE has agreements with the sponsors, not the sites." — Trial testimony, Line 7155

"Sponsors are required to verify paperwork... If a sponsor does not believe a claim is valid, they don't need to submit it." — Trial testimony, Lines 11613-11623

The sponsors filled out site applications, submitted claims through the state's CLiCS system, received reimbursements, and controlled how funds were disbursed. Mind Foundry had no access to the claiming systems and no mechanism to submit claims.

In fact, Feeding Our Future explicitly represented to MDE that FOF itself was staffing and operating the sites:

"This site is being staffed by Feeding Our Future. The site operators will not prepare the meals... Only Feeding Our Future's trained staff and volunteers... are permitted to distribute the meals." — FOF letter to MDE, per Honer testimony, Lines 4746-4752

The sponsors told the state they were operating the sites. The sponsors submitted the claims. The sponsors received and disbursed the funds. Reporting that attributes the claiming to ThinkTechAct is factually wrong.

Mind Foundry was a pass-through in a sponsor-directed money flow. The sponsors controlled the process:

1. Sponsors submitted claims to MDE and received federal reimbursements
2. Sponsors dictated payment flows, activated sites, and controlled vendor contracts
3. Sponsors directed funds to sites and providers, including Mind Foundry
4. Mind Foundry provided STEM education services

The extent of sponsor control is documented in emails. In one exchange, a Partners in Nutrition executive wrote to Ibrahim:

"Payments will be made directly to the sites, not to Empire... We will activate Winfield Townhomes as a site and I will work on getting Clifton Townhomes... We will also have you fill out a catering contract with Samaha." — Kara Lomen, PIN Executive Director, August 27, 2020

The sponsor dictated where payments went, which sites would open, and which vendor contracts to sign. When Ibrahim asked basic questions about how the program worked — "How do you define a site?" — the sponsor explained it to him.

Notably, 83% of funds attributed to ThinkTechAct (over $18 million) came from Partners in Nutrition — a sponsor that has not been criminally charged. PIN later admitted in its own court case that it submitted claims it "later learned were false" and that it simply "passed through the claims believing that they were valid."

On July 24, 2025, Mahad Ibrahim pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

The plea acknowledges that Ibrahim allowed ThinkTechAct to be used in a fraud scheme and that he took deliberate steps to avoid learning the full scale of his co-conspirators' activities. In legal terms, this is known as willful blindness—liability for deliberately not looking at what was happening around you.

This archive does not contest the guilty plea. What it contests is the characterization—repeated in virtually every article written about this case—that Mind Foundry was a "shell company" or a "sham nonprofit" that did no real work. The evidence in this archive demonstrates that the educational programming was real, the staff were real, and the students were real.

Mind Foundry had no role in the claims process. This is extensively documented.

Mind Foundry did not submit reimbursement claims, did not sign meal count sheets, did not fabricate rosters, and did not devise the fraud scheme. The sponsors submitted inflated meal claims for sites that used Mind Foundry's name. Mind Foundry provided STEM education at those sites. The claims process was entirely separate from the educational programming.

The government's own Presentence Investigation Report — prepared by an independent federal probation officer — confirms this:

• "Did not directly participate in his co-conspirators' signing of fraudulent meal count sheets or fabrication of rosters"
• "Was not involved in devising the scheme or creating falsified documents"
• "Appears to be one of few defendants... who made investments to distribute meals and provide education to children"
• "Purchased more than $1,500,000 in food for distribution to children"

Under U.S. conspiracy law, a person can be held liable for the acts of co-conspirators even if their own activities were legitimate. Ibrahim's guilty plea is to willful blindness — allowing his organization's name to be used while deliberately not looking at the full scale of what his co-conspirators were doing with the claims process. That is the legal basis for the conviction. It is not an admission that Mind Foundry conducted fraud or that its educational work was fabricated.

A shell company is an entity that exists only on paper—no real operations, no real employees, no real products or services. It exists solely to move money.

The prosecution used this characterization. Much of the media repeated it. This archive exists to show it is wrong.

Mind Foundry was a real organization that did real work. Calling it a shell company is factually incorrect, and this archive is the proof.

Attorney General Ellison's office called ThinkTechAct a "sham nonprofit." The prosecution called it a "shell company." Multiple outlets repeated these characterizations.

A sham or shell exists only on paper. This archive contains seven years of evidence to the contrary: 24,287 operational emails, 103 named staff members, 2,630 code commits building a real software platform, contracts with Minneapolis Public Schools, partnerships with MacArthur Foundation-backed education organizations, and documented programming at 20 locations.

The founder has accepted legal responsibility for what went wrong with the food program. But characterizing the entire organization as a sham erases the real work of over a hundred people and thousands of students. That characterization is what this archive exists to correct.

Multiple articles noted with skepticism that Mind Foundry operated from a coworking space at Southdale Center. The implication was that a real education organization would have a traditional office.

Mind Foundry was a field organization. Our work happened in schools, community centers, and child care facilities—not in an office. A coworking space served as administrative headquarters because the programming happened at partner sites across Minneapolis and St. Paul. This is how most enrichment providers operate.

This is accurate. ThinkTechAct's tax-exempt status was automatically revoked in 2020 for failure to file Form 990 returns. This was an administrative failure—a serious one—but it is not evidence of fraud. The IRS automatically revokes status after three consecutive years of non-filing, and thousands of small nonprofits lose their status this way every year.

The reporting used this fact to imply the organization was illegitimate. An organization can fail to file tax returns and still operate real programs. These are separate issues.

This archive contains the operational records of Mind Foundry Learning:

• 24,287 emails from May 2016 to January 2022
• 94+ documents including lesson plans, attendance records, contracts, and assessments
• Photos and videos from programs across all sites
• Platform development records including code repositories and design files
• Staff directory of all 103 contributors
• Site records for all 20 program locations

The prosecution called Mind Foundry a shell company. The media called it a sham nonprofit. These characterizations erased seven years of real work by over a hundred people.

This archive exists because the public record should include the full story — not just the prosecution's framing. Mind Foundry had no role in the claims process. The sponsors submitted claims, controlled disbursements, and bore regulatory responsibility. Mind Foundry provided STEM education. The government's own presentence report confirms this distinction.

Seven years of emails, code commits, lesson plans, photos, contracts, and third-party validations document an organization that taught thousands of children to code. That work deserves to be part of the record.

This archive documents the educational operations of Mind Foundry. It demonstrates that the organization was real and did real work—not a shell company.

It does not address:

• The meal claims submitted by sponsors on behalf of sites
• The flow of federal funds through the CACFP reimbursement system
• The broader Feeding Our Future case and its other defendants

The founder's guilty plea speaks for itself. This archive speaks to the question of whether Mind Foundry did real work. It did.