Prosecutors said Said claimed 6,000 meals daily
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ordered Said’s 30-year sentence on Wednesday, making it the latest punishment in a sprawling Minnesota scheme that collected millions of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic by claiming to have fed needy children. Dozens of people have been convicted in the fraud scheme, and Said operated Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, which specialized in dishes from Somalia.
The government said Said was responsible for $44 million in fraud, some of which was committed by others he recruited. Said was claiming a “ridiculous daily distribution of 6,000 meals” while FBI cameras showed 40 people a day collecting food, prosecutors said in a court filing.
“The defendant and his sites did not serve thousands of children; he served a calculated, lucrative lie,” prosecutors said in court documents.
COVID-19 brought changes to a federal program that typically fed children through schools. Restaurants could participate, and food distribution was extended to places outside schools. “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.”
Said, a native of Somalia, denied the allegations while testifying at trial in 2025. He described Safari Restaurant as a go-to spot for Somali immigrants in “Little Mogadishu” and said many meals were delivered. “If you’re making good food,” Said told the jury, “people will come to you.”
Said’s attorney, Samuel Savage, did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the sentence. A sentencing memo filed ahead of the hearing by Savage was unavailable to the public.
The government said Said bought a $1.2 million home, commercial real estate and an $87,000 pickup truck.
Said was convicted of multiple charges in 2025, along with 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 to join the federal food program during the pandemic.
State auditors found that the Minnesota Department of Education received numerous complaints about Feeding Our Future but often told the group to police itself. The fraud repeatedly drew the attention of President Donald Trump, who ridiculed Democratic Gov. Tim Walz for failing to stop it and partly cited the scheme among the grounds for heightened immigration enforcement in the state’s largest cities. In January, Walz said he would not run for reelection after Trump had assailed him over what he described as theft in programs that rely on federal cash.