Ilhan Omar's links to Somali food fraud scheme in Minnesota revealed
By Katelyn Caralle
Daily Mail
Dec 4, 2025
New details reveal Ilhan Omar's potential links to those convicted in the Somali fraud case in Minnesota.
The progressive Somali-born congresswoman has so far not been directly tied by prosecutors to the scandal - but she does have connections to at least two convicted food fraudsters.
And now the Trump administration is investigating whether the millions fraudulently obtained were then funneled to terrorist organizations, including Somalia-based Al-Shabaab.
Salim Ahmed Said, 33, is the owner of Safari Restaurant, which is where Omar held her 2018 campaign victory party.
He was convicted in March 2025 on 21 counts including wire fraud, federal programs bribery and money laundering. He allegedly pocketed $5 million from the scheme funneling money through Feeding Our Future for his own enrichments rather than for the child nutrition program.
He is facing decades in prison and is one of the more than 70 defendants charged in the sweeping case. There are 45 convictions so far.
Additionally, Omar campaign official Guhaad Hashi Said, pleaded guilty in August to running fake food site Advance Youth Athletic Development, and pocketing $3.2 million from the program.
Omar maintains she was completely unaware of illegal activity, even though she introduced the 2020 MEALS Act bill that made the $250 million fraud scheme possible.
Omar's ties to the $1 billion welfare scam in her Minnesota congressional district are slowly being uncovered.
Not only did she likely dish out funds to hold her 2018 victory party at Salim Said's restaurant, but a Minnesota-based policy fellow told the New York Post that she often frequented the Safari Restaurant.
'[Rep. Omar] knew who these people were. People she personally knew were making tens of millions of dollars in this program,' claimed Bill Glahn, a policy fellow with the Center of the American Experiment.
He added: 'She had been inside the [Safari] facility on numerous occasions and couldn't put two and two together? Either she's terminally naive, or knew and didn't care.'
Omar's congressional office did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment in new revelations about the extent of her links to the convicted.
Safari restaurant allegedly received more than $16 million in funds in 'phantom meals' he claims was to serve millions of meals to children that were never provided.
Prosecutors note that he spent the money he enriched himself with from the charity scheme on a $2 million mansion in Minneapolis and a $9,000-a-month shopping habit at Nordstrom.
Additionally, Omar campaign staffer Guhaad Said claimed he served 5,000 meals every day, but was taking millions into his own coffers. He pleaded guilty to his fraud in August 2025.
He worked on Omar's 2018 and 2020 campaign as an 'enforcer' overseeing an aggressive voter mobilization strategy in the Somali community in Minneapolis.
Guhaad Said and Omar often attended the same events, according to Facebook photos of the pair together, including smiling selfies.
Some who donated to Omar's campaign even received fraudulent money from the food charity scam. The congresswoman received $7,400 in donations from now-convicted fraudsters.
When the scandal broke in 2022, she returned those contributions.
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