Minnesota Man Gets 30 Years in Pandemic Child Meals Fraud Case

A 37-year-old Minneapolis restaurant operator has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his part in defrauding a US food programme in Minnesota during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case has drawn intense national attention and political pressure from President Donald Trump.

Salim Said, who ran Safari Restaurant, was accused of greatly inflating the number of meals he claimed to have served to needy children in order to obtain government payments. Prosecutors said he was responsible for $44 million in fraud, part of it carried out by others he brought into the scheme.

At the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, US District Judge Nancy Brasel told him: "You took more than taxpayers' dollars to enrich yourself. You took the reputation of our state down with you."

In a court filing, prosecutors said 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," they wrote. They added that for 21 consecutive months he submitted thousands of fraudulent reimbursement claims, and that the children listed in them were entirely fictitious.

The government said Said spent the stolen money on a $1.2 million home, commercial real estate and an $87,000 pickup truck.

Said, who was born in Somalia, denied the allegations when he testified at his 2025 trial, saying many meals had been delivered off site. At sentencing, however, he changed course and expressed remorse. His defence lawyer, Barry Zone, had asked for a 12-year sentence and disputed the government's description of Said as the "architect" of the scheme.

The fraud exploited changes made during the pandemic to a federal programme that normally feeds children through schools. Under the revised rules, restaurants could take part and food distribution was extended to locations beyond schools.

Said was convicted in 2025 alongside Aimee Bock, leader of the Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Bock is serving a 42-year prison sentence for devising the scheme and was ordered to repay $242 million. The wider scheme has led to dozens of convictions.

Trump has repeatedly attacked the handling of the case, mocking the state's Democratic governor for failing to stop the fraud and citing it as grounds for an immigration crackdown in Minnesota's largest cities. State auditors found that the education department received numerous complaints about Feeding Our Future but often told the group to police itself. After sustained criticism from Trump over theft in federally funded programmes, Governor Tim Walz announced in January that he would not seek re-election.