Feeding Our Future restaurant owner says COVID meal sites were investments, not fraud

As a defendant in the Feeding Our Future trial insisted his Minneapolis restaurant fed thousands of children during the pandemic, prosecutors confronted Salim Said with evidence of a huge jump in income once he became more involved in the fraud at the now-defunct Twin Cities nonprofit.

Said’s co-defendant in the weeks-long trial, Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock, is charged with orchestrating a $250 million scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during COVID.

Prosecutors contend that Said, a one-time co-owner of Safari Restaurant, played a major role in the conspiracy.

The Lake Street business allegedly siphoned $16 million from public coffers by operating a fraudulent meal site and serving as a phony vendor to others. The government says Said personally pocketed nearly $6 million, which he spent on cars and real estate, including a $1.2 million home in Plymouth with an indoor basketball court.

In testimony last week, Bock denied taking part in any fraud even as lead prosecutor Joe Thompson showed jurors stacks of six- and seven-figure checks to meal site operators that Bock had signed. Many were paid to Safari. But on the witness stand Monday, Said insisted that his operation was legitimate.

Under questioning from defense attorney Adrian Montez, Said told jurors that he first started working at the restaurant as a busboy in 2004 while in high school. A decade later, he bought a third of the business and soon took over day-to-day management.

When COVID hit in 2020 and Safari had to cancel several weddings, Said said that he gave away the food he purchased instead of tossing it. Then a man connected to Feeding Our Future told him government reimbursement was available for feeding kids.

Montez showed jurors images taken at Safari during the pandemic, including one of a table piled high with aluminum to-go trays. Said estimated that there were nearly 1,700 meals in that photo alone, because each covered tray held five to six kids’ meals.

“Are you saying to this jury that Safari was actually doing this, they were serving 5,000 meals to the community every single day?” Montez asked.

“Yes, every single day we were serving this food,” his client responded.

Said added that no children came to Safari; parents picked up the meals, or the restaurant delivered them in bulk. Prosecutors say Safari’s claims are wildly exaggerated, and the restaurant had nowhere near the capacity to cook that much food.

Thompson began his cross examination by asking Said about a 2011 credit card fraud and forgery conviction in Indiana. Said denied responsibility, and said that his uncle set him up to take the blame for fraudulent computer purchases at a Walmart.

The prosecutor then confronted him with pre-COVID tax returns that showed Said earning just $30,000 from the restaurant in 2017.

“Your company went from making a half million dollars a year in revenue to $16 million in the next 18 months, is that right?” Said agreed.

“This program made you and your partners rich, correct? Thompson asked.

“Yes, you could say that,” Said replied.

Later, Thompson asked Said about the multiple companies he set up to operate other purported food sites and to collect checks from Feeding Our Future. FBI forensic accountants testified previously that this was a ruse to hide stolen money.

Said called the cash transfers between his companies investments.

“My job is to cook the food and when I make a profit I open other businesses.”

Said insisted the meal sites under his control were legitimate and that investigators might have missed a $2 million purchase of food from the supplier Sysco.

“Don’t lie to this jury,” Thompson snapped before Montez objected.

Judge Nancy Brasel then dismissed jurors for the day. Thompson is expected to wrap up his cross examination Tuesday before attorneys make their closing arguments.

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