Women walk along a tree-lined street in Minneapolis’ Cedar–Riverside neighborhood, home to one of the largest Somali communities in the U.S. 
A street sign for "Somali St" is pictured with Riverside Plaza in the background in Minneapolis’ Cedar–Riverside neighborhood.
Time to wise up. These interlopers are not your friends.
Yup
https://www.foxnews.com/media/tim-walz-called-out-washington-post-refusing-take-responsibility-minnesota-fraud-scandal
Tim Walz called out by Washington Post for refusing to take responsibility for Minnesota fraud scandal
Walz was pressed on the fraud in his state during 'Meet the Press' on Sunday.
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz isn't "helping himself by refusing to take responsibility" for the welfare fraud that occurred in "plain sight" during the COVID-19 pandemic in his state, The Washington Post editorial board wrote Wednesday.
The Justice Department announced new charges last week against the 78th defendant in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, which prosecutors say involved more than $250 million in stolen funds from a federally funded child nutrition program and has already resulted in over 50 convictions. Many of those charged come from Minnesota’s Somali community.
"The governor is not helping himself by refusing to take responsibility for the welfare fraud that happened in plain sight during the pandemic. Residents, mostly of Somali descent, targeted established Medicaid programs. They opened fake food distribution centers and autism centers to funnel resources away from the neediest. The numbers alone made clear what was happening," the editors wrote.
"Autism centers in Minnesota grew by 700 percent between 2018 and 2023 once it became clear how much welfare money was available for the taking. Funding increased by 3,000 percent, from $6 million to almost $192 million. No reasonable person could possibly believe this money was addressing a real surge in autism, yet attempts to flag strange trends went unanswered," they continued.
The editorial board pointed to Walz's appearance on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, when he was pressed on whether he wanted to take responsibility for failing to stop fraud in his state.
"Well, certainly I take responsibility for putting people in jail. Governors don’t get to just talk theoretically. We have to solve problems and I will note, it’s not just Somalis. Minnesota is a generous state, Minnesota is a prosperous state, a well-run state, we are AAA bond-rated, but that attracts criminals. Those people are going to jail, and we are doing everything we can, but to demonize an entire community on the actions of a few, it's lazy," Walz responded.
They argued that those charged with fraud had their sights "set on the state’s vast and unaccountable welfare programs: European-style entitlements that turned out to be shockingly easy to scam."
The editorial board used the word "lazy" to describe Walz's response and compared it to President Donald Trump claiming that the "good parts" of the economy were his doing, before blaming the bad parts on former President Joe Biden, during a "Meet the Press" interview earlier this year.
"But it is also lazy to sing the praises of Minnesota’s famously generous welfare state when its merits, and its resources, are evaporating. Walz signed anti-fraud legislation at the start of this year in an attempt to weed out abuses of the system more effectively, but he has also overseen a vast expansion of the welfare state during his tenure, without implementing robust safeguards and checks to be sure the money is fairly distributed," the board wrote.
The editors also criticized Trump's response to the fraud, which included the president calling Walz "retarded" in a Truth Social post. They called Trump's move to end deportation protections for Somalis in Minnesota "morally bankrupt."
The editorial board noted that former Vice President Kamala Harris only carried Minnesota in the 2024 election by four points, despite having Walz on the ticket.
Washington Post columnist Jim Geraghty also criticized Walz in a column on Tuesday, and said the governor was "crumbling" along with any possible hopes for 2028.
Gov. Walz's office did not immediately return a request for comment.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/minnesota-taxpayer-dollars-funneled-al-shabaab-terror-group-report-alleges
Minnesota taxpayer dollars funneled to Al-Shabaab terror group, report alleges
Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F Rufo uncovered a web of fraud schemes that funneled funds to Al-Shabaab
Rachel Wolf By Rachel Wolf Fox News
A new investigation found that Minnesota taxpayer dollars were going far beyond the North Star State's borders and ending up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked terror group.
Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo of the Manhattan Institute uncovered a web of fraud involving Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, Feeding Our Future and other organizations in a bombshell report. Thorpe and Rufo noted that, in many cases, members of Minnesota's Somali community were perpetrators of fraud. They added that federal counterterrorism sources confirmed that millions of dollars in stolen funds were sent back to Somalia, which is how Al-Shabaab got the cash.
Thorpe and Rufo sought to answer a bigger question when looking into the schemes: "Where did the money go?"
As it turned out, the Somali fraud rings sent money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia and, according to reports, approximately 40% of households in Somalia get remittances from abroad. Thorpe and Rufo state that in 2023, the Somali diaspora sent $1.7 billion to the country, which was higher than the Somali government's budget that same year.
Thorpe and Rufo discovered that the funds were being funneled to Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked terror organization. Multiple law enforcement sources informed the duo that Minnesota's Somali community sent millions of dollars through a network of money traders known as "hawalas" that wound up in the hands of the terror group.
Glenn Kerns, a retired Seattle Police Department detective who spent 14 years on a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, told Thorpe and Rufo that the Somalis ran a complex money network and were routing cash on commercial flights from the Seattle airport to the hawala networks in Somalia.
"We had sources going into the hawalas to send money. I went down to [Minnesota] and pulled all of their records and, well s---, all these Somalis sending out money are on DHS benefits," Kerns told Thorpe and Rufo.
A confidential source told Thorpe and Rufo that "The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer."
"Every scrap of economic activity, in the Twin Cities, in America, throughout Western Europe, anywhere Somalis are concentrated, every cent that is sent back to Somalia benefits Al-Shabaab in some way," a former official who worked on the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force told Thorpe and Rufo.
The HSS program was launched with the goal of helping those in need, but it turned into a fraud scheme. The program was initially estimated to cost $2.6 million, but in its first year it paid out more than $21 million in claims, according to Thorpe and Rufo. The costs only grew from there with the program paying out $61 million in claims in the first six months of 2025.
On Aug. 1, Minnesota's Department of Human Services ended the program after finding that payment to 77 housing-stabilization providers were terminated over "credible allegations of fraud," Thorpe and Rufo reported.
Just over a month after the program was shut down, then-acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson announced criminal indictments for HSS fraud against Moktar Hassan Aden, Mustafa Dayib Ali, Khalid Ahmed Dayib, Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, Christopher Adesoji Falade, Emmanuel Oluwademilade Falade, Asad Ahmed Adow and Anwar Ahmed Adow. A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson told Thorpe and Rufo that all six are members of Minnesota’s Somali community.
Thompson said at a September news conference that the issue went beyond overbilling, rather they often involve "purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system." Furthermore, those perpetrating the scam often targeted vulnerable individuals, such as people recently released from rehab, and signed them up for services that they allegedly did not plan to provide.
On Sept. 18, the same day the HSS indictments were announced, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced a 56th defendant pleaded guilty in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. The number of defendants has only grown, with the U.S. Attorney's Office announcing charges against a 77th defendant on Nov. 20.
Feeding Our Future received $3.4 million in federal funds disbursed by the state in 2019, but as COVID-19 hit, the organization rapidly expanded its number of sponsored sites, according to Thorpe and Rufo, who added that in 2021, Feeding Our Future received almost $200 million in funding.
"Using fake meal counts, doctored attendance records, and fabricated invoices, the perpetrators of the fraud ring claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day, seven days a week, to underprivileged children," Thorpe and Rufo wrote in their report.
The funds were not going to the needy; rather, the money was being used to pay for luxury vehicles and real estate in the U.S., Turkey and Kenya, among other things.
When officials became suspicious of the nonprofit in 2020, Feeding Our Futures filed a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination related to outstanding site applications. In the suit, the nonprofit notes that it "caters to" foreign nationals, according to Thorpe and Rufo. They also note that "several individuals" involved in the scheme donated to Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and that Omar's deputy district director advocated for the group.
A few days later, Thompson announced an indictment in another fraud scheme, this time involving autism services for children.
Asha Farhan Hassan, a member of Minnesota’s Somali community, who has also been charged in the Feeding Our Future scam, is accused of playing a role in a $14 million scheme against Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program. According to Thorpe and Rufo, Hassan and her co-conspirators allegedly recruited children from the Somali community for autism therapy services. Prosecutors suggested that Hassan would facilitate fraudulent autism diagnoses for children who did not have one.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said that Hassan would use monthly cash kickbacks to drive enrollment and that payments ranged from $300 to $1,500 per month, per child.
"To be clear, this is not an isolated scheme. From Feeding Our Future to Housing Stabilization Services and now Autism Services, these massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money. Each case we bring exposes another strand of this network. The challenge is immense, but our work continues," Thompson said in a statement.
Minnesota State Rep. Kristin Robbins, who is running to unseat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, shared Thorpe and Rufo's report on X, writing, "Billions of our tax dollars have been stolen under [Tim Walz]. We need help from [Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel] and our partners at [the U.S. Attorney's Office] to find out if our state dollars are funding terrorism."
Walz's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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