A series of sprawling fraud schemes involving hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Minnesota taxpayers — from COVID-relief programs to housing and autism services — have placed the state’s Somali community under a renewed, intense spotlight, raising uncomfortable questions about whether some who found refuge here are robbing their new neighbors blind.
These swirling fraud cases — and claims that some ill-gotten gains were diverted to the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab — have now prompted a House investigation, a Treasury Department probe and mounting political pressure on state leaders, including Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, over why Minnesota failed to safeguard taxpayer money.
The fraud revelations, combined with a string of violent crimes and revived terror concerns involving Somali-linked defendants, have shaken public confidence and raised urgent questions about why Minnesota failed to stop the schemes sooner. The developments have also deepened public unease and revived long-standing questions about assimilation, oversight and public safety in Minnesota.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital that the fraud scandal represents “a catastrophic failure of oversight” under Walz and characterized some of the culprits involved as a “Somali criminal enterprise crew.”
A series of sprawling fraud schemes involving hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Minnesota taxpayers — from COVID-relief programs to housing and autism services — have placed the state’s Somali community under a renewed, intense spotlight, raising uncomfortable questions about whether some who found refuge here are robbing their new neighbors blind.
These swirling fraud cases — and claims that some ill-gotten gains were diverted to the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab — have now prompted a House investigation, a Treasury Department probe and mounting political pressure on state leaders, including Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, over why Minnesota failed to safeguard taxpayer money.
The fraud revelations, combined with a string of violent crimes and revived terror concerns involving Somali-linked defendants, have shaken public confidence and raised urgent questions about why Minnesota failed to stop the schemes sooner. The developments have also deepened public unease and revived long-standing questions about assimilation, oversight and public safety in Minnesota.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital that the fraud scandal represents “a catastrophic failure of oversight” under Walz and characterized some of the culprits involved as a “Somali criminal enterprise crew.”
“People can focus on an ethnic group if they want, but the real issue is the lack of leadership and accountability in the state of Minnesota with Tim Walz and his administration. This wasn’t about Somalis; this was about government incompetence and lack of accountability,” Emmer said.
“We have been trying to sound the alarm on this fraud… for more than three years.”
‘Schemes stacked upon schemes’
The centerpiece scandal is the Feeding Our Future case, where approximately $300 million intended to feed low-income children during the pandemic was siphoned away in what federal prosecutors describe as the largest pandemic-relief fraud scheme charged in U.S. history. Some of the shell companies and meal sites were operated by Somali Minnesotans, prosecutors say, though the alleged ringleader — Aimee Bock — is a White American.
That sprawling case has now grown to at least 78 defendants, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.
Prosecutors say criminals also bilked millions of dollars from Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services program — which pays for help finding and keeping housing — as well as the state’s autism-services program by billing for appointments, therapy and casework that never took place.
Former Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson described the scams as “schemes stacked upon schemes” that drained tens of millions of dollars from Medicaid. At least some of those defendants also have ties to the Somali community.
“It feels never-ending,” Thompson said in September, when announcing that eight people had been charged with defrauding the housing stabilization services program of around $8.4 million in total. “I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away. The fraud must be stopped.”
Thompson said the eight were part of the “first wave” of prosecutions in the case. The fraudsters, in many instances, spent the cash on luxury cars, lavish lifestyles and purchasing property at home and in places like Kenya.
State Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, the lead Republican on the state Senate’s Human Services Committee, told Fox News Digital he believes the Feeding Our Future scandal grew to historic levels because state leaders were afraid to investigate Somali-run nonprofits and unwilling to confront obvious fraud.
“Concerns of political correctness halted the Walz administration from doing the investigations they needed to protect Minnesota’s tax dollars,” Rasmusson said.
He said state DHS dysfunction “from the time that Gov. Walz took office” created an environment where criminals were able to exploit human-services programs for years.
“The administration has been asleep at the wheel,” he said.
A widely circulated DHS whistleblower account alleged that staff who raised internal fraud concerns were ignored, reassigned or sidelined — which tracks with Rasmusson’s account.
Feeding Our Future swindle unravels
Bock, the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, and Salim Said, a local restaurant owner, were found guilty of their roles in the scheme, with prosecutors stating that they splashed their cash on luxury homes and cars, as well as their lavish lifestyles.
They claimed to have served 91 million meals, for which they fraudulently received nearly $250 million in federal funds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota. It’s unclear how many Somalis were involved in the scheme, as prosecutors don’t release the nationalities of defendants.
One witness reportedly claimed that Said disclosed a gang affiliation and threatened to kill that person if they reported the fraud to authorities, Thompson said.
Additionally, five people were also charged with offering a cash bribe to a juror and preparing written arguments for the juror. One argument read, “We are immigrants: they don’t respect or care about us.”
In 2021, when the Minnesota Department of Education grew suspicious and tried to stop the flow of funds, Feeding Our Future sued, alleging racial discrimination. A judge ordered the state to restart reimbursements — a ruling prosecutors said enabled the scheme to escalate.
The lawsuit drew political support from Somali-American State Sen. Omar Fateh, who appeared at a community celebration of the ruling and later acknowledged receiving — and returning — campaign donations from individuals indicted in the case.
While investigating the scandal, federal agents discovered that one scammer, Asha Farhan Hassan, had pocketed about $465,000 but was also operating a much larger scheme: defrauding the state’s autism-treatment program of roughly $14 million. Hassan billed Medicaid for fake therapy sessions, used untrained staff and paid parents $300 to $1,500 a month to keep their kids in the program. She sent hundreds of thousands of dollars abroad, including to purchase real estate in Kenya, prosecutors said.
The scale of program growth stunned federal officials. The Housing Stabilization Services program was projected to cost $2.6 million annually but paid out more than $100 million last year. The autism program’s budget jumped from $3 million in 2018 to nearly $400 million in 2023, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
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