Meanwhile, From the Minnesota Fraud Files…
One off-the-record source said, “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab [terrorists] is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
The news out of Minnesota lately has not been so “nice.” A 77th defendant was just indicted in Minneapolis for his role in a massive scheme to defraud American taxpayers of $250 million in COVID relief funds.
The money was supposed to feed children in need during the pandemic. According to federal prosecutors, only 3% of the money actually went to feeding children. Many of the people involved in this scheme are members of the Minneapolis Somali community.
Here’s another outrage.
The state of Minnesota just shut down a program to help seniors and people with disabilities secure housing. Why would they do that given the current housing affordability crisis? Exploding costs were a big reason.
When the program was established in 2020, it was expected to cost around $2.6 million. But the next year, the program spent 8 times more than that. The following year, it spent 16 times more. When the program was shut down last month, it was on track to spend more than $120 million this year.
How do you go from spending $2.6 million to $120 million? Fraud. Six Somalis were just indicted for stealing money from the program.
Federal prosecutor Joe Thompson said the “vast majority” of this program was pure fraud funneled through “fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system.” Thompson added:
“What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need… I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor, and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away.”
But that’s not all.
A similar thing happened with the state’s program to assist children with special needs. Medicaid autism claims in Minnesota went from $3 million in 2018 to $400 million in 2023.
During that time, the number of autism treatment centers and providers went from 41 to 328—many were newly established centers in the Somali community. When the fraud was finally discovered, the rate of “autism” among Somali children was more than three times the state average—all part of the fraud.
What happened to all that money meant to help Americans in need? Much of it was sent to terrorists in Somalia who want to kill Americans. One off-the-record source said, “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab [terrorists] is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
