As investigators keep peeling back the layers of Minnesota’s stunning $1 billion welfare fraud case, one question keeps rising to the surface: What exactly did Rep. Ilhan Omar know — and when did she know it? Because the coincidences are starting to stack up higher than the fraudulent meal counts.
Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th District, held multiple events at Safari Restaurant — yes, the same Safari Restaurant whose co-owner, Salim Ahmed Said, was convicted of stealing over $12 million by claiming to have served 3.9 million phantom meals during the pandemic. It also happens to be the very place where she celebrated her 2018 congressional victory. Nothing says “public service” quite like popping champagne in a future federal crime scene.
“She had been inside the facility on numerous occasions and couldn’t put 2 and 2 together? Either she’s terminally naive, or knew and didn’t care,” said Glahn. And honestly, when even local observers are questioning your awareness, it’s probably not a great sign.
The scam goes back to around $250 million handed out by the Minnesota government to feed schoolchildren during the pandemic. Instead, corrupt operators pocketed the money. And just to make things even more uncomfortable for Omar, one of the people convicted in the scheme is one of her own staffers — deputy district director Ali Isse. He wasn’t exactly discreet either. In 2021, as state officials flagged “serious deficiencies” and auditing failures, Isse publicly defended the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, praising their “vital work” and attacking state agencies for…doing oversight. How rude of them.
Feeding Our Future, now shut down, became the main pipeline through which vast amounts of taxpayer money poured — with almost no inspections, verification, or accountability. And during this whole time, Omar appeared in a video at Safari Restaurant praising the program. Conveniently, she later criticized the fraud, calling it “reprehensible,” and insisted she knew nothing about the wrongdoing. Her office, unsurprisingly, did not respond to requests for comment.
Worth noting: the free-meals system was enabled by the MEALS Act — a bill introduced by Omar in 2020 that loosened oversight and fast-tracked reimbursements. Passed with bipartisan support, it opened the door for nonprofits and for-profits alike to claim huge sums with barely any verification. What a shock that bad actors exploited it immediately.
So far, 78 people have been indicted, with fraud schemes ranging from fake children’s meals to bogus homeless shelters to falsely diagnosing kids with autism to claim taxpayer funds. Meanwhile, state officials — including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — are now under investigation for failing to catch the fraud sooner. Walz says he “welcomes” the investigation, though he predictably didn’t comment on why he’s included in it.
As one observer put it bluntly, certain players in the Somali community involved in the fraud “are conditioned to ripping off the government because that’s what goes on in Somalia.” Whether people agree with that assessment or not, it shows the level of frustration at how deeply the scam infiltrated the system.
While investigators work to untangle what happened, one thing is certain: this wasn’t small-time corruption. It was a massive, coordinated, taxpayer-funded heist right under the noses of the very officials who were supposed to be watching — including the congresswoman representing the district where it all went down.
But hey, the good news? At least the truth is finally coming out, and accountability is starting to catch up with those who thought no one was paying attention.
