State investigators say the Minnesota Department of Revenue has charged four people in what they describe as a sprawling business scheme that allegedly used a tangle of companies to hide income and duck state taxes. At the center of the case is Egal Properties LLC and a cluster of linked entities that investigators say funneled business receipts into personal spending and commercial real estate purchases instead of properly reporting the income. Officials say their inquiry traced more than $10 million moving through business bank accounts and concluded that the accused owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid state tax assessments.
The department named Ali Farah Egal, Fardous Jama Egal, Abdirisak Abdirahman Abdulle and Samsam Gatah in its charging announcement, alleging that Egal Properties was tied to at least 14 businesses that did not file returns or report income. According to state investigators, more than $10 million flowed through Egal Properties' accounts from 2019 through 2024. Ali Farah Egal and Fardous Jama Egal allegedly owe more than $350,000 in state taxes, while Abdirisak Abdirahman Abdulle and Samsam Gatah are accused of owing about $777,000. Prosecutors say the business network functioned as a way to disguise personal spending and sidestep tax obligations.
Feeding-program links add a federal angle
The department also says some of the income in the business network came from public child care and nutrition programs, a detail that lands differently in Minnesota these days given the wave of fraud prosecutions involving pandemic-era feeding operations. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Star Tribune have documented convictions and sentencing in the large Feeding Our Future case, highlighting how federal and state investigators have been working on parallel tracks in similar allegations involving public money.
What the charges mean
State tax offenses can include knowingly failing to file returns, filing false returns and willfully trying to evade tax. Minnesota law provides both criminal penalties and civil remedies for those offenses, and the core rules are spelled out in Minnesota Statutes §289A.63. That statute is a regular feature in tax-evasion charging documents and can carry felony penalties, restitution orders and a long paper trail that follows defendants well beyond any courtroom appearance.
Next steps and local impact
Prosecutors will now review the Revenue Department's referral and decide whether to file criminal complaints in Hennepin or Ramsey County. At the same time, the department can pursue civil tax collections or place liens on properties that investigators say were purchased with business funds. The agency also urges the public to report suspected tax fraud and pursues both civil and criminal remedies, per the Minnesota Department of Revenue. For Minneapolis business owners and tenants, the case serves as a pointed reminder that complex corporate structures and holding companies can look less like savvy planning and more like a red flag when investigators start tracing public dollars or large, unexplained cash flows.
