Salim Said, a convicted fraudster with ties to Democratic “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar, lived like a king as he bilked a federal program meant to feed impoverished children.
He packed his sprawling 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-bath Minneapolis mansion with designer bags, Italian shoes, and luxury watches totaling up to $60,000.
Now the feds want it all back.
Prosecutors are asking a judge to authorize the government to seize the items so the former Somali restaurant owner — a convicted co-conspirator in the Feeding our Future scandal — can pay at least a fraction of the proposed $7.8 million judgement against him.
The eye-popping loot was included in a pair of legal memos prosecutors filed with the court last week.
The luxe laundry list includes a 2021 Mercedes GLA -Class car and a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado SUV, a Rolex Submariner watch that goes for $14,000, and a shearling-lined Brunello Cucinelli coat that costs up to $10,000, based listings reviewed by The Post.
He also had an enviable assortment of designer bags, including a Prada Monochrome Tote that fetches $800, a Burberry trench coat that costs $2,800, and a fine footwear fetish that ran to the many thousands of dollars.
The shoe horde includes such items as Christian Laboutin boots that go for $1,600 and grey Balenciaga Speed Graffiti sneakers that cost $900.
Prosecutors also want to drain five of Said’s bank accounts worth $514,000 and seize his $1.3 million home in Minnesota along with a $3 million commercial property in Columbus, Ohio, along with the haul of handbags, electronics, and fragrances.
All are ill-gotten gains, prosecutors argued at trial before Said’s conviction in March, when they said he had a $9,000-per-month spending habit at Nordstrom’s.
Said, 37, got $16 million worth of federal funds for his restaurant to hand out meals for children during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was found guilty in March of stealing more than $12 million for serving 3.9 million “phantom” meals, and convicted on 21 crimes that include wire fraud and bribery.
His trial was marked by a brazen bribery attempt that gained international attention — in which a Hallmark gift bag stuffed with $120,000 cash was delivered to a juror’s home the night before the panel was scheduled to be in court to hear closing arguments.
Omar is not accused of wrongdoing in the burgeoning Minnesota health care fraud totaling up to $9 billion. She does, however, have numerous ties to Said.
He co-owned the now-defunct Safari Restaurant, which played host to Omar’s 2018 congressional victory party. Two of Safari’s co-owners donated $4,700 to Omar’s campaign, according to FEC records.
As the Feeding our Future scam was underway in 2020, Omar even appeared on video at Safari Restaurant to praise the program, bragging about donation numbers that turned out to be fraudulent.
“Every day, Safari provides 2,300 meals to children and their families,” she boasted in Somali in the video, while being filmed handling trays of food in a parking lot with her pandemic-era facemask pulled down below her nose.
It was Somalia-born Omar who introduced the legislation — the MEALS Act — critics say paved the way for the scam, relaxing oversight of government-sponsored children’s meal programs during the pandemic.
Omar’s own finances came under scrutiny after she filed a congressional disclosure revealing a sudden jump in her own assets from next to nothing to up to $30 million.
Omar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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