Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-5) has not been formally accused of any direct involvement with the welfare fraud scandal going down in the Gopher State, where scammers of mostly Somali descent ripped off the government by skimming as much as $1 billion from nutrition programs like Feeding Our Future.
She’s certainly familiar with some of the people involved, however — in fact, she reportedly knows some of them quite well. Omar has strong relationships with at least two scammers in the fraud saga:
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.
Salim Ahmed Said, 33, is the owner of Safari Restaurant, which is where Omar held her 2018 campaign victory party. He was convicted for allegedly pocketed $5 million from the Feeding Our Future program for his own enrichment rather than for child nutrition. pic.twitter.com/OexvQSj8FW
— Geepers808 🍌 🦍 (@GeepersNFT) December 4, 2025
Another one of the thieves worked directly with her campaign:
A different Omar campaign official, a Democratic activist named Guhaad Hashi Said, pleaded guilty in August to running a fake food site called Advance Youth Athletic Development, where he falsely claimed to serve 5,000 meals a day and pocketed $3.2 million out of the food program.
Said worked on Omar’s 2018 and 2020 campaigns as an “enforcer” who oversaw aggressive voter mobilization in the Somali community, according to local Alphanews.org.
Guhaad Hashi Said, a Democrat activist and close associate of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D), has pleaded GUILTY in connection with the massive Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 12, 2025
Hashi reportedly ran a site under the name Advance Youth Athletic Development that falsely claimed to serve up to… pic.twitter.com/Wxj58ELbSO
Hashi reportedly ran a site under the name Advance Youth Athletic Development that falsely claimed to serve up to 5,000 meals a day, and took an estimated $3.2 MILLION out of the food program.
Over four dozen people have now been convicted in connection with the scam.
As I said above, Omar has not been formally accused of anything and is innocent until proven guilty. That being said, as the saying goes, “You are known by the company you keep,” and she certainly seems to be buddies with some big-time criminals.
Another phrase goes, "Show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are."
The Somali community in Minnesota, estimated at 108,000, is considered tight-knit and is bound together by numerous family ties. Bill Gahn, a policy fellow with the Center of the American Experiment, alleged Omar would know many of those involved in the scandal:
[Rep. Omar] knew who these people were. People she personally knew were making tens of millions of dollars in this program.
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.
Expect the investigations to ramp up and more prosecutions to come as authorities try to untangle the web of treachery. Whether Omar was directly involved or not, she and woefully inept Gov. Tim Walz failed to protect their constituents and the American people.
Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about feckless politicians like Ilhan Omar and Tim Walz.
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