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Court filings reveal how Said set up a nonprofit called Advance Youth Athletic Development during the pandemic. On paper, it looked like a charity dedicated to feeding needy kids. In reality, it was little more than a shell operation headquartered in a Minneapolis apartment building.
Starting in March 2021, Said began sending the government meal count reports claiming his group served 5,000 meals a day to hungry children. By year’s end, he claimed over a million meals had been provided. But prosecutors say most of those meals never existed. Fake attendance rosters, fabricated invoices, and phony claims helped the scheme rake in $2.9 million in federal funds.
Investigators say the money didn’t go to feed children. Instead, more than $2.1 million was funneled to a catering company under the guise of food purchases, while other funds went toward luxury cars, real estate, and personal spending through a maze of shell businesses.
Said now faces up to 25 years in federal prison. He previously ran for the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2018.
While Omar herself has not been directly implicated, the guilty plea comes as she battles her own controversies. In 2019, the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board ruled her state campaign improperly spent funds on personal expenses, ordering her to pay back $3,469.23.
More recently, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) demanded an ethics probe after video surfaced of Omar speaking in Somali, with critics accusing her of putting Somalia’s interests above America’s.
“No sitting member of Congress should be able to blatantly spew anti-American rhetoric and get away with it,” Emmer said earlier this year, calling on Omar to “resign in disgrace” over the remarks.
Omar pushed back, claiming the translation was misleading. In her own version, she said, “While I am in Congress, no one will take Somalia’s sea. The United States will not back others to rob us.”
The case highlights how the Feeding Our Future scandal continues to entangle figures tied to Minnesota Democrats — even as Omar faces her own political firestorms.
Sentencing for Said will take place in the coming months.
