Senate ethics committee chair: Sen. Fateh’s unreported campaign office ‘very troubling’

A DFL state senator — who is currently the subject of an ethics investigation — ran his 2020 campaign out of a south Minneapolis location without reporting paying any rent, according to trial testimony and campaign finance filings. 

If Fateh received free rent without reporting it as an-kind contribution, he would be in violation of Minnesota campaign finance rules. 

Fateh, who faces Shaun Laden in the Aug. 9 DFL primary, did not respond to a text message seeking comment. 

The first-term lawmaker, who won the endorsement of his local Senate district DFL this spring, has encountered a raft of political problems in recent months, while Senate DFL colleagues are divided about how much to support him. 

Fateh’s campaign office came up during a June 15 Senate ethics hearing. Lawmakers are looking into Fateh’s political relationship to his brother-in-law Muse Mohamud Mohamed, who was convicted in May of lying to a federal grand jury in connection with an investigation into ballot fraud during the 2020 primary, including Fateh’s primary victory over then-state Sen. Jeff Hayden. 

A friend of Mohamed’s, Mustafa Hassan, testified during Mohamed’s perjury trial that when he showed up to volunteer for Fateh’s campaign on the day of the 2020 primary election, he was taken to a back room and given three envelopes to deliver to an elections office.

While questioning Fateh about what happened in the campaign office, Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch, asked Fateh about the office at 624 E. Lake St., and Fateh confirmed that he had a campaign office.

Sen. David Osmek, R-Mounds, chair of the subcommittee, noted there’s no record of a campaign office in Fateh’s campaign finance reports. Osmek questioned whether Fateh paid for the office, saying including that on a campaign finance report is “obvious as the nose on anyone’s face.” Candidates must report things such as the amount of the rent and length of the lease.  

“This is very troubling,” Osmek said. “We’re now approaching reckless disregard, in my opinion, and that’s a legal terminology I don’t throw around lightly but we’ve now established multiple issues regarding campaign finance.”

Kristin Hendrick, an attorney representing Fateh, didn’t address Fateh’s failure to report the campaign office, saying the office space wasn’t part of the ethics complaint.

“There was no indication that we needed to provide any sort of documentation related to any sort of office space or meeting space that was used,” she said during the June 15 hearing. “I guess I don’t really see why it would matter if they had an office or met in the Wabasha Street Caves or some other corner on the street.”

Jeff Sigurdson, executive director of the Minnesota State Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, said all expenditures (rent) or contributions (free rent) must be reported to his office. If a complaint is made that Fateh didn’t report his office expense, the agency could open an investigation. If the board views it as an honest mistake, often the person is allowed to amend their report. If it was considered deliberate, the board could issue a fine. In most cases, the board is just interested in getting an accurate campaign finance report.

Sigurdson said he couldn’t comment on whether anyone has filed a complaint against Fateh for neglecting to report the office.

Fateh has said — and the Reformer confirmed — that he worked at the Federal Election Commission as a campaign finance analyst. He told MinnPost that after moving from Virginia to Minneapolis in 2015, he worked in the Minneapolis Elections Office, Minnesota Department of Transportation and Minnesota Department of Revenue.

Osmek said he has a “very deep concern” that lawmakers uncovered another probable campaign finance violation, creating “a pattern that is very concerning — that I think (this) committee may have to deal with… and that continued pattern does bring disrepute upon this body.”

Lawmakers are also looking into campaign ads run on Somali TV of Minnesota — a popular YouTube channel for Minnesota’s Somali population — and whether Fateh inappropriately sought state grant money for the nonprofit. The complaint is based on a May Reformer report that four months after Somali TV ads endorsed Fateh’s campaign, Fateh introduced a bill to give the nonprofit $500,000 in state funding.