Former Ilhan Omar Associate Pleads Guilty in $2.9 Million Fraud Scheme

A close associate of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has admitted guilt in a massive federal fraud case, marking yet another embarrassment for the progressive congresswoman’s political circle.

Federal prosecutors announced that 49-year-old Guhaad Hashi Said — once described by Alpha News as an “enforcer” for Omar’s campaign — entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. His crimes were tied to the multi-million-dollar Feeding Our Future scandal, which siphoned money from a taxpayer-funded child nutrition program during the pandemic.

“The conviction of the 52nd defendant in the Feeding Our Future case is yet another reminder of the vast reach of this fraud and the scale of the crisis we face in Minnesota,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said in a statement. “These crimes are not isolated events. They are part of a web of schemes targeting programs that are intended to lift up Minnesotans and bleeding them dry. From where I sit, the scale of the fraud in Minnesota is staggering, and every rock we turn over reveals more. We must be honest and clear-eyed about the scope of this problem, because ending it will take an unyielding, all-hands-on-deck effort from all of us.”

How the Scheme Worked

Court records show that between December 2020 and January 2022, Said exploited the Federal Child Nutrition Program by falsely claiming his nonprofit — Advance Youth Athletic Development — was serving thousands of meals daily to poor children. The “nonprofit” was incorporated in February 2021 at a Minneapolis apartment building.

By March of that year, Said began submitting fraudulent meal counts, claiming to feed as many as 5,000 children a day. Over nine months, he asserted that his group had served over one million meals, when in reality only a fraction were ever provided. Prosecutors detailed that he forged attendance rosters, invoices, and paperwork to collect nearly $2.9 million in taxpayer dollars.

From August to December 2021, Said funneled more than $2.1 million from his accounts into a catering company, all while using other funds to buy cars, real estate, and personal luxuries through shell entities and sham nonprofits. He now faces up to 25 years in federal prison.

Omar’s Cloud of Controversy

Although Rep. Omar has not been charged in connection with the Feeding Our Future scandal, the guilty plea highlights the troubling associations surrounding her political world. Omar has faced repeated questions over her ethics and priorities:

• In 2019, Minnesota’s Campaign Finance Board found her guilty of multiple violations, including improper personal use of campaign funds, and ordered her to repay $3,469.23.
• Earlier this year, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) demanded a formal ethics probe after video surfaced of Omar speaking in Somali. Translations suggested she prioritized Somalia’s national interests over those of the United States.
  • “No sitting member of Congress should be able to blatantly spew anti-American rhetoric and get away with it,” Emmer said in January, urging Omar to “resign in disgrace.”

Omar dismissed the translation as inaccurate, offering her own version in which she pledged to protect Somalia’s sea access. “While I am in Congress, no one will take Somalia’s sea,” she said. “The United States will not back others to rob us.”

These comments are consistent with her long record of controversial statements, including a 2019 remark implying lawmakers were showing “allegiance to a foreign country” because of pro-Israel lobbying. At the time, she tweeted: “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.”

Political Fallout

The latest guilty plea by a one-time Omar campaign operative intensifies the scrutiny on Minnesota’s Democratic power structure. For conservatives, it underscores how entrenched fraud, corruption, and questionable allegiances have become in the progressive ranks.

Said will be sentenced at a later date, but the political damage to Omar’s reputation — already weakened by past ethics violations and incendiary rhetoric — may be lasting.