MINNEAPOLIS – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced this week that Federal officials are conducting a fraud investigation in Minnesota.
The effort arrives after years of investigation that started with the $300 million scheme involving nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors convicted 57 defendants. Investigators stated the organization was at the root of the country’s biggest COVID-19-related fraud scam. The defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program aimed at providing food for children.
Noem posted a video on X showing DHS officers entering an unidentified business. The officers questioned the employee at the counter. Noem expressed that investigators were “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.”
In early December, a federal prosecutor alleged that at least half of the estimated $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. The prosecutor said most of the defendants are Somali American.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz responded by expressing that fraud will not be tolerated. Walz asserted that his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement additionally posted on X. “The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found,” they shared.
DHS’s actions come a day after FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the Bureau had “surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.” Additionally, Patel assured that the previous fraud arrests were “just the tip of a very large iceberg.”
Tension between state and federal enforcement has increased in Minnesota. The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has prioritized the Somali community along the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. It is the largest Somali community in the country.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota, 82 of the 92 defendants running schemes to get funds for child nutrition, autism programs, and housing services are Somali Americans.
