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Members of the inner circle of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., personally profited from the $1 billion welfare fraud scandal in her district that has placed her Somali constituency under a White House microscope.
Omar held events at one of the restaurants named in the fraud, knew one of its now-convicted owners and had a staffer who was also convicted, the New York Post reported.
Omar also introduced the legislation that led to $250 million being defrauded from federal child-nutrition programs in COVID-19 aid, according to the newspaper.
FEDERAL PROBE TARGETS ALLEGED MINNESOTA SOMALI FRAUD ‘NETWORK’ AS COVID-AID CRIME RINGS PERSIST
Around $250 million in state funds was distributed beginning in 2020 to provide meals to schoolchildren during the pandemic. However, the money was allegedly pocketed by Salim Ahmed Said, the co-owner of Safari Restaurant, where Omar held her 2018 congressional victory party.
Said was convicted in March for his role in the scheme, with the Justice Department stating that the funds — intended to feed children — were used to finance a lavish lifestyle.
He spent much of the money on a $2 million Minneapolis mansion and a $9,000-per-month shopping habit at Nordstrom, according to prosecutors.
The free meals were made possible by the 2020 MEALS Act, introduced by Omar and passed with bipartisan support, the Post said.
Much of the funding was funneled through the now-defunct nonprofit Feeding Our Future, according to the DOJ. Omar appeared in a video promoting the program.
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The congresswoman has not been directly linked to the fraud. Fox News Digital has attempted to reach her office for comment.
“The alleged fraud scheme orchestrated by Feeding Our Future is reprehensible. Using the guise of feeding children to funnel millions of dollars toward extravagant expenses is abhorrent, and anyone who participated in this scheme must be held accountable,” Omar told a local Minnesota news outlet at the time.
During an appearance on CNN this week, Omar was pressed to explain how fraud became so rampant within her state.
“I think what happened, um, is that, you know, when you have these kind of new programs that are, um, designed to help people, you’re oftentimes relying on third parties to be able to facilitate. And I just think that a lot of the COVID programs that were set up — they were set up so quickly that a lot of the guardrails did not get created,” she said.
In August, Guhaad Hashi Said, a Democratic activist and former Omar campaign official, pleaded guilty to running a fake food site, Advance Youth Athletic Development.
MINNESOTA GOVERNMENT WORKERS BLAME WALZ FOR ‘MASSIVE FRAUD’ AMID ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SOMALI COMMUNITY
He claimed the group served 5,000 meals a day to children, pocketing millions, the Justice Department said.
Said worked on Omar’s 2018 and 2020 campaigns as an “enforcer” who oversaw voter turnout efforts in the Somali community.
As of November, at least 78 defendants have been charged in what has widely been considered the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme in the United States.
The Trump administration has blamed Minnesota officials for the lack of oversight.
The Small Business Administration is investigating a network of Somali groups in Minnesota that it says is tied to the scandal and a House Oversight Committee has opened an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s role.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized Omar and blamed the Somali community for the scope of fraud occurring in Minnesota.
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“These Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country,” Trump told reporters. “They’ve taken billions and billions of dollars. They have a representative, Ilhan Omar, who they say married her brother. She should be thrown the hell out of our country.
“And most of those people, they have destroyed Minnesota. She should not be — and her friend shouldn’t be allowed — frankly, they shouldn‘t even be allowed to be Congresspeople, OK? They shouldn’t even be allowed to be Congresspeople because they don’t represent the interests of our country.”
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