'Architect' of Minnesota Food Fraud Sentenced to 30 Years
Is this justice for looting a program meant to feed hungry kids or scapegoating one man while the gatekeepers walk free?
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Above: Salim Said (in front). Image credit: Gina Beana Fofina via X
The Facts
- Salim Said, 37, the co-owner of the former Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in federal prison for his role in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, the third-longest term among 32 people sentenced so far.
- U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel told Said, "You took the reputation of our state down with you," while Said told the court he was "deeply sorry" for his involvement. In their sentencing memo, prosecutors called Said the "undisputed architect" of the scam operation.
- Prosecutors had sought a 40-year sentence, while defense attorney Barry Zone asked for 12 years, arguing Said did not design the scheme and that Aimee Bock, sentenced in May to nearly 42 years, signed every check and controlled the money.
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The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Thirty years is the price you pay for looting a program meant to feed hungry kids during a national emergency. Phony meal counts bankrolling mansions and luxury cars amount to cold, calculated greed that wrecked trust in government. And one sentencing hardly dents the billions lost while state oversight slept.
Establishment-critical narrative
This sentence is pure scapegoating, as the gatekeepers who waved the money through and the politicians who happily worked the room at Safari somehow walk away clean. Decades behind bars for someone who survived war and refugee camps, then got recruited into somebody else's network, stretches punishment far beyond the crime.
