Minnesota Food Fraud: Salim Said Sentenced to 30 Years for $44M Scheme
Salim Said, operator of a Minneapolis restaurant, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in a $44 million COVID-era federal food program fraud.
Minneapolis restaurateur gets 30-year sentence in sprawling federal food fraud
Salim Said, who operated Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for his role in defrauding a federal child nutrition program out of $44 million, ABC News US reports. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel handed down the sentence, the latest in a fraud case that has ensnared dozens of defendants across Minnesota.
Said was convicted in 2025 of vastly overstating the number of meals his restaurant served when filing for federal reimbursements. Prosecutors said he claimed a "ridiculous daily distribution of 6,000 meals" while FBI surveillance cameras recorded roughly 40 people per day collecting food at his sites.
"The defendant and his sites did not serve thousands of children; he served a calculated, lucrative lie," prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Over 21 consecutive months, Said submitted thousands of fraudulent reimbursement claims listing meals purportedly provided to underprivileged children — children prosecutors say were entirely fictitious. The government holds Said responsible for $44 million in losses, a portion of which was generated by others he recruited into the scheme.
Said used the proceeds to purchase a $1.2 million home, commercial real estate, and an $87,000 pickup truck, according to federal authorities.
At trial, Said denied all allegations. He described Safari Restaurant as a gathering point for Somali immigrants in Minneapolis's "Little Mogadishu" neighborhood and insisted that many meals had in fact been delivered. "If you're making good food," Said told the jury, "people will come to you." Said is a native of Somalia. His attorney, Samuel Savage, did not immediately return a request for comment on the sentence, and a sentencing memo filed by Savage ahead of the hearing was not available to the public.
The fraud exploited changes made to a federal child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools had traditionally been the primary distribution point, but the public health emergency allowed restaurants and other sites to participate and extended food distribution beyond school premises.
Said was convicted alongside Aimee Bock, the founder of Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future, who devised the broader scheme to recruit Said and others into the federal program during the pandemic. Bock is currently serving a 42-year prison sentence.
Dozens of people have been convicted in connection with the Minnesota fraud, a case that has drawn repeated attention from President Donald Trump. Trump has criticized Democratic Governor Tim Walz for failing to detect or stop the scheme, and has partly cited the fraud as justification for an immigration crackdown in the state's largest cities. In January, Walz announced he would not seek reelection, following sustained criticism over theft within federally funded programs.
State auditors found that the Minnesota Department of Education received numerous complaints about Feeding Our Future during the period in question but repeatedly directed the organization to police itself.
Source: ABC News US