Another Crooked Somali Community Leader

[AbdiWahab252]

Somali Center Director Claims No Wrongdoing

Abdizirik Hassan Says Center Does Good Work For Community

Reported By Dennis Ferrier
WSMV; Nashville, TN.

Video: Despite Charges, Somali Center Director Claims No Wrongdoing
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A man at the center of an I-Team investigation is now telling his side of the story.

According to annual reports, the Somali Center in south Nashville receives $400,000 per year in taxpayer dollars from federal, state and local governments.

But the center’s director, Abdizirik Hassan, has been investigated by the federal government and has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the government and was sentenced to two years of federal probation.

The funding for the center has raised questions by some as to why the center is still being funded after the trouble.

Hassan said his center is doing great work and is totally transparent and financially accountable to the last dime.

“I want to set the record clear by saying I have a conviction, but that conviction is a misdemeanor conviction and that does not stop me or bar me from what I’m doing now to serve my community,” Hassan said. “I’m more than willing to set aside this organization and let someone else take over and do this job because I’m not here for the money, and I offered that before and my staff, everybody wants me to continue this job and do what I’m doing now.”

The former evaluator of one of the grants awarded to the center, Dr. Nana Landenberger, said the grant’s goals of preventing domestic violence and female genital mutilation were ignored and that the Somali Center considered women's issues unimportant.

“Unless I brought it up, it wasn’t discussed. It was just sort of silently dropped from the agenda that these were actually main objectives of the grant,” she said.

Hassan said the center has done nothing about female genital mutilation because it is not a problem in Nashville.

“I want to make clear that I never had any case about FMG in this city,” he said.

Hassan said the Somali Center is so well-run, it is considered a model refugee assistance center by national experts.

“If there is anybody that questions the capability or integrity of this center, I am more than willing to invite them here (to) check our books, check our records, talk to our clients (and) see how we do our job effectively,” he said.

But did Hassan follow the law in applying for the grants?

Records show Hassan signed grant documents swearing that he had not been indicted, convicted or arrested for any crime.

“Actually I (sought) advice on that but was told. … This was the explanation I got: If I lied or misrepresented the facts related to the grant (or this center), or with the federal government, that’s what this is,” he said.

One federal prosecutor said Hassan made another false statement when signing those assurances.

Source: WSMV, May 01, 2007