Salim Said, described by prosecutors as the architect of the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, is due to be sentenced in Minneapolis on Wednesday, with the US government seeking a 40-year prison term.
Said was convicted on 21 counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy, federal-programme bribery and money laundering, following a trial alongside Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock.
Federal prosecutors have called him the “undisputed architect” of a scheme that diverted hundreds of millions of dollars intended to provide meals to children during the Covid-19 pandemic.
They allege that Said used his Safari Restaurant in south Minneapolis to submit inflated meal figures and fraudulent claims. Investigators said paperwork indicated that as many as 6,000 children were being fed each day, while FBI surveillance recorded an average of about 40 people visiting the site.
Prosecutors say more than $44 million in illicit funds passed through Safari Restaurant and another business linked to Said. They allege the money was used to acquire property, luxury vehicles, designer clothing and other high-value goods.
The government has argued that a lengthy sentence is necessary because Said exploited a federal food programme during a public-health crisis and showed little remorse. It also criticised evidence he gave while testifying in his own defence.
Said’s lawyers have rejected the proposed sentence, arguing that 40 years in prison would not amount to justice and disputing the prosecution’s portrayal of him as the scheme’s designer.
US District Judge Nancy Brasel is presiding over the sentencing hearing. Said is the latest major defendant to face punishment in the sprawling Minnesota fraud prosecution, after Bock was sentenced earlier this year to almost 42 years in prison.
