For weeks, whispers had been circulating in Minneapolis political circles — rumors that yet another name connected to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s old campaign operation had landed in serious trouble.
Then, on Thursday morning, it became official.
Inside a quiet federal courtroom, a man once described as one of Omar’s most aggressive political operatives pleaded guilty to two felony counts — conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Former youth sports organizer. Political activist. And, according to multiple local reports, a man who played an “enforcer” role within Omar’s early campaign network.
The sum involved: nearly $2.9 million.
The crime: exploiting a federal child nutrition program designed to feed hungry kids.
And now, Minnesota finds itself at the center of one of the largest pandemic-era corruption scandals in America — a case that is exposing deep cracks not just in state oversight, but in the tight-knit political ecosystem that surrounds one of Congress’s most controversial figures.
A Fraud Hidden Behind a Smile
The courtroom was silent as prosecutors read the charges.
Between December 2020 and January 2022, Said had filed paperwork claiming his nonprofit — Advance Youth Athletic Development — was feeding thousands of children every single day.
Five thousand meals.
Per day.
On paper, it sounded noble.
In reality, it was a phantom operation run out of a single residential apartment in the Central Avenue Lofts in Minneapolis.
According to federal investigators, Said’s organization was part of the sprawling Feeding Our Future network — a massive, pandemic-era food distribution program that turned into a honey pot for fraudsters and political opportunists.
From March through December 2021, prosecutors said, Said claimed to have served more than 1 million meals.
But in truth, the children he claimed to feed never showed up. The rosters were forged. The meal counts were fabricated.
Invoices were made up from thin air.
What wasn’t imaginary were the millions of dollars in federal funds that poured into his accounts — money meant to feed the hungry, but instead used to buy real estate, luxury cars, and personal items.
“The Scale of This Fraud Is Staggering”
Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson didn’t hold back in his statement to the press.
“These crimes are not isolated events,” he said. “They are part of a web of schemes targeting programs that were intended to lift up Minnesotans — and instead, they bled them dry.”
He paused for emphasis.
“From where I sit, the scale of the fraud in Minnesota is staggering. Every rock we turn over reveals more.”
Said’s guilty plea follows a pattern.
Over the past two years, federal prosecutors have charged more than 70 individuals in connection with the Feeding Our Future scandal — a sprawling network that siphoned off an estimated $250 million in taxpayer money.
And while Omar herself has not been implicated, the political optics could hardly be worse.
The Shadow Around Ilhan Omar
For her critics, the timing feels like déjà vu.
Omar, one of the most prominent members of the left-wing “Squad,” has long faced questions about the conduct of those in her political orbit.
Guhaad Hashi Said wasn’t just a stranger on the fringes. Local media described him as a “muscle figure” and fixer for Omar’s campaign, often appearing at events and rallies to manage logistics and handle disruptions.
It’s unclear when he last worked directly with Omar’s team, but his ties to the congresswoman date back years — to her earliest rise in Minnesota politics.
To understand why this matters, one must look at the broader landscape of scandals and controversy that have dogged Omar since her arrival on the national stage.
A Troubling Pattern in Minnesota
This latest conviction didn’t happen in a vacuum.
Just days before Said entered his guilty plea, federal officials made another disturbing announcement: nearly half of all immigrants in the Minneapolis area had been found to have committed some form of immigration fraud during a recent sweep.
Joseph Edley, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, revealed that the fraudulent activity included fake death certificates, sham marriages, and falsified family records.
The revelation was shocking to outsiders — but not to longtime Minnesotans familiar with the deep political and cultural shifts brought by the state’s large Somali refugee population over the past three decades.
Even the State Department halted one of its Somali family reunification programs back in 2008, after DNA testing revealed that 80 percent of claimed familial relationships were fraudulent.
A Controversy That Never Went Away
And then there’s Ilhan Omar herself — whose own personal history has been clouded by a long-standing and still-unresolved scandal.
Back in 2016, investigative journalist David Steinberg reported that Omar had entered into a legal marriage with a man named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom Somali community members claimed was actually her brother — allegedly so he could obtain U.S. immigration benefits.
At the time, Omar was already “religiously married” to another man — Ahmed Hirsi, the father of her children — though not legally.
When reporters pressed her campaign for answers, she refused to comment.
Instead, her lawyer accused them of being racist.
Years later, the questions still linger.
Records show Omar’s marriage to Elmi didn’t legally dissolve until 2017 — long after she’d already launched her political career in Minnesota.
The issue has never been fully explained, leaving a stain on her credibility that critics continue to cite whenever new scandals emerge from within her circle.
A Familiar Script
Political insiders say the Said case — though distinct from Omar’s personal controversies — plays into a narrative that has haunted her for years: a network of activists, nonprofits, and political operatives loosely tied to her brand of progressive politics, many of whom later became entangled in corruption.
“There’s this whole ecosystem around Ilhan Omar that’s been built on moral language and compassion — feeding children, housing refugees, helping immigrants,” said one Minneapolis resident who worked in local government and spoke on condition of anonymity. “But when you start looking at the paperwork, it’s money, influence, and grift.”
In this case, the betrayal cut deep.
The Feeding Our Future program was designed to help children who couldn’t afford daily meals during the pandemic.
Instead, prosecutors say, millions of dollars meant for those children were used to buy homes, cars, and luxury goods.
“You’re talking about people stealing from kids,” said U.S. Attorney Thompson. “That’s the part that still shocks even career prosecutors.”
Inside the Scam
According to the plea deal, Said began his operation in early 2021, when pandemic restrictions were still in full swing.
He incorporated Advance Youth Athletic Development as a nonprofit — but listed his own apartment as the official address.
Within weeks, he was submitting meal count sheets to the federal government, claiming that he and his team were distributing 5,000 meals per day.
Prosecutors say he used fake attendance logs, bogus invoices from catering companies, and falsified receipts to justify the reimbursements.
Between March and December 2021, the organization claimed to have served more than a million meals.
The result?
A windfall of $2.9 million in federal funding.
Of that total, roughly $2.1 million was funneled through shell companies to a catering firm, supposedly for food purchases. The rest went to fund Said’s personal expenses — including real estate, high-end vehicles, and luxury items.
In court, Said admitted the details without emotion.
When the judge asked if he understood that his actions deprived children of food, he simply nodded.
He now faces up to 25 years in federal prison.
A Political Earthquake in Minnesota
The reverberations from the plea deal are already being felt across Minnesota politics.
Republican leaders immediately seized on the news, arguing that the Democratic political machine in Minneapolis has fostered an environment ripe for fraud and abuse.
“When government money flows freely and oversight disappears, corruption follows,” said one GOP strategist. “And sadly, Minnesota has become ground zero for it.”
Meanwhile, progressive activists have largely gone silent — offering little public comment beyond generic condemnations of “pandemic-era greed.”
Even within the Democratic Party, there are growing fears that Omar’s continued controversies — both real and perceived — could damage the party’s standing in a state that has historically leaned blue.
“This is not what Minnesotans signed up for,” said one Democratic donor. “We wanted social justice and reform. What we’re getting is scandal after scandal.”
A Deeper Cultural Reckoning
Beyond politics, the case has reignited debate about accountability within Minnesota’s growing Somali-American community.
Supporters of Omar and other Somali leaders have long argued that such scrutiny is racially motivated — an attempt to demonize immigrants and Muslims.
But others within the community say that looking the other way only enables corruption.
“We have to stop pretending this is about racism,” said Abdullahi Hassan, a Somali-American business owner in St. Paul. “When people commit fraud, they should go to jail. Period. It doesn’t matter where they’re from.”
The Legacy Question
As for Omar, she has not commented publicly on Said’s conviction.
But observers note that each new scandal — no matter how distant — chips away at the congresswoman’s carefully curated image as a reformer fighting for the marginalized.
Whether fair or not, the public perception is clear: controversy follows her.
From the 2019 ethics investigation into her campaign finances…
To accusations of improper use of funds…
To now, the criminal conviction of a man once tied to her campaign structure.
Each incident adds weight to a growing question:
Is Ilhan Omar a symbol of progress — or of the rot inside progressive politics?
The Bigger Picture
Said’s conviction may close one legal chapter, but it opens a much larger conversation about how billions in federal pandemic relief were distributed — and how much was stolen.
Federal investigators say the Feeding Our Future probe remains ongoing, and more indictments are expected.
“Every time we dig, we find another layer,” one Justice Department source told reporters. “This isn’t over.”
For now, Guhaad Hashi Said will await sentencing.
But for Ilhan Omar and the political establishment in Minnesota, the fallout may just be beginning.
Final Thought
When the lights dimmed in that Minneapolis courtroom, there were no chants, no cameras, no politics — just the echo of a gavel and the quiet acknowledgment of guilt.
A man who once claimed to serve the hungry had instead served himself.
A congresswoman whose circle once included him is now facing another public relations nightmare.
And a state once proud of its progressive ideals is left confronting a darker truth — that compassion, without accountability, can be corrupted.
