Salim Mentioned, 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 kids.
He packed his sprawling 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-bath Minneapolis mansion with designer luggage, Italian footwear, and luxurious watches totaling as much as $60,000.
Now the feds need all of it again.
Prosecutors are asking a decide to authorize the federal government to grab the gadgets so the previous Somali restaurant proprietor — a convicted co-conspirator within the Feeding our Future scandal — pays at the least a fraction of the proposed $7.8 million judgement towards him.
The attention-popping loot was included in a pair of authorized memos prosecutors filed with the court docket final week.
The luxe laundry listing features a 2021 Mercedes GLA -Class automobile and a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado SUV, a Rolex Submariner watch that goes for $14,000, and a shearling-lined Brunello Cucinelli coat that prices as much as $10,000, primarily based listings reviewed by The Submit.
He additionally had an enviable assortment of designer luggage, together with a Prada Monochrome Tote that fetches $800, a Burberry trench coat that prices $2,800, and a positive footwear fetish that ran to the numerous 1000’s of {dollars}.
The shoe horde consists of such gadgets as Christian Laboutin boots that go for $1,600 and gray Balenciaga Pace Graffiti sneakers that value $900.
Prosecutors additionally wish to drain 5 of Mentioned’s financial institution accounts price $514,000 and seize his $1.3 million dwelling in Minnesota together with a $3 million industrial property in Columbus, Ohio, together with the haul of purses, electronics, and fragrances.
All are ill-gotten features, prosecutors argued at trial earlier than Mentioned’s conviction in March, after they stated he had a $9,000-per-month spending behavior at Nordstrom’s.
Mentioned, 37, obtained $16 million price of federal funds for his restaurant at hand out meals for kids throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. He was discovered responsible in March of stealing greater than $12 million for serving 3.9 million “phantom” meals, and convicted on 21 crimes that embrace wire fraud and bribery.
His trial was marked by a brazen bribery try that gained worldwide consideration — through which a Hallmark reward bag full of $120,000 money was delivered to a juror’s dwelling the night time earlier than the panel was scheduled to be in court docket to listen to closing arguments.
Omar just isn’t accused of wrongdoing within the burgeoning Minnesota well being care fraud totaling as much as $9 billion. She does, nevertheless, have quite a few ties to Mentioned.
He co-owned the now-defunct Safari Restaurant, which performed host to Omar’s 2018 congressional victory celebration. Two of Safari’s co-owners donated $4,700 to Omar’s marketing campaign, in line with FEC data.
Because the Feeding our Future rip-off was underway in 2020, Omar even appeared on video at Safari Restaurant to reward this system, bragging about donation numbers that turned out to be fraudulent.
“Each day, Safari gives 2,300 meals to kids and their households,” she boasted in Somali within the video, whereas being filmed dealing with trays of meals in a car parking zone together with her pandemic-era facemask pulled down beneath her nostril.
It was Somalia-born Omar who launched the laws — the MEALS Act — critics say paved the best way for the rip-off, stress-free oversight of government-sponsored kids’s meal packages throughout the pandemic.
Omar’s personal funds got here underneath scrutiny after she filed a congressional disclosure revealing a sudden bounce in her personal belongings from subsequent to nothing to as much as $30 million.
Omar didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
