Minnesota fraudster gets 30 years for $44M scheme

“Feeding Our Future ringleader Salim Said got 30 years in prison,” said the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in a statement Thursday afternoon. “His Safari Restaurant was one of the largest sites defrauding the program. Rep. Ilhan Omar celebrated her 2018 primary win there. Accountability is here.”

Said was accused of claiming to distribute a “ridiculous” 6,000 meals daily through the taxpayer-funded, COVID-19-era Feeding Our Future program. He was first convicted in March 2025 by a federal jury.

Said was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota and expressed remorse during sentencing. His own attorney called him the “architect” of the scheme but requested a reduced sentence of 12 years.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel refused that request, emphasizing the broader damage caused by the fraud.

“You took more than taxpayers’ dollars to enrich yourself,” Brasel said. “You took the reputation of our state down with you.”

The conviction puts renewed pressure on U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is already facing a federal immigration investigation.

As previously reported by The Center Square, Minnesota Republicans sought in May to subpoena Omar over communications related to the Feeding Our Future fraud investigation. Democrats blocked that effort.

Following the failed vote, Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove and chair of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Oversight Committee, asked U.S. congressional leaders to assist in securing the records.

Throughout the spring, the committee focused heavily on Omar’s sponsorship of the federal MEALS Act in 2020, legislation they argue loosened oversight requirements in federal child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The committee became interested in Omar’s involvement after learning of communications between her office and individuals later convicted in the scheme. Robbins also pointed to a 2020 video in which Omar promoted meal distribution efforts at Said’s Safari Restaurant.

“Rep. Omar had some role, whether inadvertent or not,” Robbins said. “She passed the MEALS Act in March of 2020, and that took the guardrails off the federal school nutrition program, which created the conditions for Feeding Our Future.”

Federal prosecutors have described the Feeding Our Future case as one of the largest pandemic-era fraud schemes in the country, alleging more than $250 million intended for child nutrition programs was fraudulently claimed through fake meal reimbursements.

Said’s conviction is the latest development in the ongoing investigation into the program, which has yielded dozens of arrests and convictions. 

This is just one of several programs facing scrutiny. Since 2018, federal prosecutors “estimate that $9 billion has gone to fraud from the high-risk Medicaid programs” just in Minnesota.

Officials in the Trump administration have called the widespread fraud in Minnesota “the single greatest theft of taxpayer dollars through welfare fraud in American history,” while Robbins said the fraud in Minnesota’s welfare systems is a “web.”

“This is a web and we keep finding these webs over and over,” Robbins said. “I just feel like we are still missing the mark to dismantle these webs of fraud.”

Others have argued this fraud is not unique to Minnesota though.

In a recent exclusive interview with The Center Square, Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ government group, warned that taxpayers may not fully understand the scope and cost of the fraud affecting government programs.

“I don't think people fully understand at this point how much of their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being stolen,” Talcove said. “Minnesota is not unique. It happens in every state.”