Prosecutors told a federal court that the children named in the meal claims were invented. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced the man who filed those claims to 30 years in prison.
Salim Said, who ran Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, received the sentence for his role in a pandemic-era scheme that drained money from a federal food program meant for needy children.
The government attributed $44 million in fraud to him. It said others he recruited committed some of that total.
The sentence is the latest punishment in a sprawling scheme that collected millions of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic by claiming to have fed needy children.
US District Judge Nancy Brasel handed down the penalty and spoke to Said directly.
“You took more than taxpayers’ dollars to enrich yourself. You took the reputation of our state down with you,” she said.
The program at the center of the case normally feeds children through schools.
When COVID-19 struck, federal rules shifted. Restaurants gained the ability to participate, and food distribution could take place at locations outside schools.
Prosecutors said Said used that change to his advantage.
Safari Restaurant specialized in dishes from Somalia, and the government said he submitted reimbursement claims for meals his sites supposedly provided.
A court filing from prosecutors quoted the volume he claimed: a “ridiculous daily distribution of 6,000 meals.”
That same filing described what the FBI recorded. Agents set up cameras, and the footage showed 40 people a day collecting food.
Prosecutors drew the contrast in a single sentence.
“The defendant and his sites did not serve thousands of children; he served a calculated, lucrative lie,” they said.
The government also detailed how long the claims continued.
“For 21 consecutive months, Said made thousands of fraudulent reimbursement claims, day after day, month after month,” prosecutors said.
“Each submission represented meals purportedly provided to underprivileged children, yet the listed children themselves were entirely fictitious.”
The scheme paid off for Said, according to the government. Prosecutors said he hit the jackpot, purchasing a $1.2 million home, commercial real estate and an $87,000 pickup truck.
Said, a native of Somalia, fought the case at his 2025 trial.
He took the witness stand, denied the allegations and told the court that staff delivered many of the meals off site. He was convicted that year on a raft of charges.
His approach shifted at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. Said expressed remorse before the court.
His defense attorney, Barry Zone, asked Brasel for a 12-year prison term.
Zone also challenged the government’s portrayal of Said as the “architect” of the scheme. The sentence the judge imposed exceeds the defense request by 18 years.
Said stood trial alongside Aimee Bock, who led 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.
A judge also ordered her to repay $242 million.
State auditors examined how Minnesota officials handled the nonprofit.
They found that the Minnesota Department of Education received numerous complaints about Feeding Our Future but often told the group to police itself.
Dozens of people have been convicted in the broader Minnesota fraud, and the depth of it has repeatedly drawn the attention of President Donald Trump.
He ridiculed the state’s Democratic governor for failing to stop it. He also partly cited the fraud as grounds for an extraordinary immigration crackdown in Minnesota’s largest cities.
Gov. Tim Walz announced in January that he would not run for reelection. His announcement came after Trump pounded him over theft in programs that rely on federal cash.
