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A whistleblower who says she was demoted after exposing Minnesota’s $250 million COVID fraud wants Rep. Ilhan Omar forced to testify, she said this week, as The Post obtained an audio clip of one of the fraudsters crediting the embattled pol with the explosion in popularity of the feeding program, later revealed to be a massive scheme.
Faye Bernstein, a Minnesota Department of Health Services employee, was one of the first whistleblowers of the rampant fraud, raising the alarm to higher ups as early as 2019.
“It’s hard to believe that when she was doing appearances from a restaurant we now know was a Feeding Our Future fraud site – a major one, possibly the major one – that she was completely clueless,” Bernstein told The Post. “Her record doesn’t look too well.”
She was referring Omar’s now infamous video appearance on Somali TV Minnesota in 2020, serving meals at Minneapolis’ Safari restaurant, whose owner, Salim Said, was convicted of defrauding the government of $16 million — the highest sum in the Feeding Our Future scheme.
Her comments echo those of Aimee Bock, the founder of Feeding Our Future who was just handed a four-decade sentence and who told The Post last week in a front page story it was hard to believe Omar didn’t know anything about the scheme. Omar called the claim “flat out false.”
“And if she was completely clueless, she better fire all of her staff that were supposed to be evaluating. Because somebody didn’t do any review of the background of that place,” Bernstein said.
She added: “I would love to see her come and testify. In the case of both Attorney General Ellison and her, their complete lack of contrition – their indignant attitude in dealing with these investigations has not served them well.”
“There is a level of respect that you need to pay, and you also sometimes need to admit you didn’t do a good job on something.”
Bernstein, a contract specialist lead, told Congress was demoted after reporting the fraud and called a racist by her superiors and colleagues who started a smear campaign against her. She testified before a Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing on fraud this week.
“Now I redact documents. I have nine years of college, and I put black marks on documents,” she told the committee.
Bernstein said the Somali fraudsters seized on the famously nice culture of Minnesota — neighborhood warmth mixed with unending politeness — and “white guilt” in a state that is 81.5% white, according to the latest US Census data.
“It looks really disingenuous to me,” Bernstein said.
Meanwhile, an excerpt from an audio clip emerged of one of the convicted fraudsters attributing the growth of the since fraudulent meals program during the pandemic to “Squad” Rep. Omar.
The recording is from a meeting between Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and a group that included Somali fraudsters, who complained state officials had cut funding to their fraudulent meal sites while pledging donations to his campaign.
“They have claimed the program grew too fast,” whined convicted fraudster Ikram Mohamed in the December 2021 clip, speaking about Minnesota’s Department of Education, which was responsible for administering the federal child nutrition program.
“So that is super unfortunate, but it might not be malicious,” replied Ellison.
“No, it becomes malicious,” insisted Mohamed, who also cried racism during the 54-minute meeting recorded by the fraudsters in secret.
“What happened is … the COVID hit …and a lot of the Somalis stepped up and said, ‘Wait a minute, I’m a restaurant. Safari stepped up, and Safari is all over it. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is volunteering over there! I want to be like that,'” Mohamed continued in the recording.
Mohamed, who was a consultant for Feeding Our Future, pleaded guilty in March to opening fake meal sites using her brothers, sisters and husband’s names, to steal nearly $15 million. She’s awaiting a sentencing hearing.
It was Omar’s own MEALS Act that allowed Safari, a for-profit restaurant, to participate in the US Department of Agriculture meals program, normally meant for schools, for the first time.
Bernstein isn’t the only one demanding Omar explain her actions.
“She’s been able to get away with this for far too long,” House Majority Whip Rep Tom Emmer (R-MN) told The Post. “It was her people – the Somali fraudsters that she represents and works with that stole from the very fund that she created.”
“So this idea that there’s nothing to see here… she says ‘you’re just being racist, you’re just being an Islamophobe, you’re just picking on me because I come from Somalia – no.”
“And I hope one day she’s testifying in front of a criminal jury.”
Omar is not under investigation and has not been charged with any crime in connection with the COVID fraud scheme. On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance said she was under investigation by the Department of Justice for immigration fraud stemming from allegations she married her brother to get him a green card, allegations she’s denied and called “sick.”
“The congresswoman posed for a photo op at the literal scene of the crime, Minnesota’s Safari Restaurant, which fraudulently claimed to have served millions of meals,” added Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).
“She deserves an opportunity to clear her name by cooperating with investigators and providing information about these con artists she associated herself with, who took food from the mouths of hungry children.”
The Congresswoman has been under fire since her wealth skyrocketed up to $30 million in a year, according to her financial disclosure – which she amended after an ethics complaint was filed against her and chalked the whole thing up to an accounting error.
It comes as the feds this week laid the first charges in the daycare scheme, in addition to those against 15 individuals in the $90 million Medicare fraud, warning “this is just the beginning” against fraudsters who saw Minnesota as “their own personal piggy banks.”
Omar did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Ellison, who received $10,000 in campaign contributions days after the meeting, rejected claims he was bribed, saying he took the meeting in good faith to “stand up to injustice” and was unaware he was dealing with fraudsters at the time.
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