Man Who Fed Fictitious Children on Paper Gets 30 Years in Minnesota Food Program Fraud

A federal judge in Minneapolis has ordered a 30-year prison sentence for a man who played a major part in defrauding a federal food program in Minnesota. The sentence for Salim Said, handed down Wednesday, is the latest consequence of a sprawling scheme to collect millions of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic by claiming to have fed needy children.

Said operated Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, which specialized in dishes from Somalia. Prosecutors accused him of vastly overstating the number of meals served when he sought payment. The government attributed $44 million in fraud to him, noting that some of it was committed by others he recruited.

According to a court filing, Said claimed a "ridiculous daily distribution of 6,000 meals," while FBI cameras recorded about 40 people a day collecting food. "The defendant and his sites did not serve thousands of children; he served a calculated, lucrative lie," prosecutors wrote.

The pandemic changed how the federal program operated. It typically fed children through schools, but restaurants were allowed to take part and food distribution was extended to locations outside schools. Prosecutors said Said exploited those changes for 21 consecutive months. "Each submission represented meals purportedly provided to underprivileged children, yet the listed children themselves were entirely fictitious," they said.

The government said the scheme paid off handsomely for Said, who bought a $1.2 million home, commercial real estate and an $87,000 pickup truck.

Said, a native of Somalia, denied the allegations when he testified at his 2025 trial. He described his restaurant as a go-to spot for Somali immigrants in "Little Mogadishu" and said many meals were delivered. "If you're making good food," he told the jury, "people will come to you."

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel imposed the sentence. Said's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A sentencing memo filed before the hearing by his lawyer, Samuel Savage, was not available to the public.

Said was convicted on a raft of charges in 2025 alongside Aimee Bock, the leader of the Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Bock is serving a 42-year prison sentence for devising the overall plan to recruit Said and others into the federal food program during the pandemic.

Dozens of people have been convicted in the Minnesota fraud cases, which have repeatedly drawn the attention of President Donald Trump. He has ridiculed the state's Democratic governor for failing to stop the fraud and partly cited it as grounds for an extraordinary immigration crackdown in the state's largest cities. State auditors found that the Minnesota Department of Education received numerous complaints about Feeding Our Future but often told the group to police itself. In January, Gov. Tim Walz said he would not run for reelection after sustained criticism from Trump over theft in programs that rely on federal money.