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FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency has surged additional personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota as part of an ongoing effort to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”
Patel said Sunday that the bureau moved resources into the state before recent online attention intensified, pointing to the Feeding Our Future investigation, which uncovered a $250 million scheme that siphoned federal food aid intended for children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The case has already resulted in 78 indictments and 57 convictions, with prosecutors also charging defendants in a separate plot to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash, Patel said, adding that the investigation remains ongoing.
“The FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg. We will continue to follow the money and protect children, and this investigation very much remains ongoing,” he wrote on X. “Furthermore, many are also being referred to immigrations officials for possible further denaturalization and deportation proceedings where eligible.”
U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger announces a major COVID-related fraud case in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, detailing charges against the director of Feeding Our Future and 46 others in what prosecutors call a massive scheme to steal more than $250 million meant to feed children during the pandemic. (Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Patel’s announcement comes in the wake of a viral video posted on social media Friday by independent journalist Nick Shirley that highlighted alleged fraud involving Minnesota childcare and learning centers.
In the video, many of the facilities appeared non-operational despite allegedly receiving millions of dollars in government aid.
Republican lawmakers, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., as well as Vice President JD Vance, have responded to the viral video, with Emmer accusing Gov. Tim Walz of sitting “idly by while billions were stolen from hardworking Minnesotans.”
COMER WARNS ‘WALLS ARE CAVING IN’ ON TIM WALZ AS MINNESOTA FRAUD PROBE WIDENS
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sits for an interview with Star Tribune journalists in his office at the State Capitol in St. Paul on Dec. 12, 2024. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Shirley’s video also follows a group of Minnesota state staff members who accused Walz in November of failing to act on widespread fraud warnings and retaliating against whistleblowers.
An X account calling itself Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary, which says it consists of more than 480 Minnesota state staff members, wrote that Walz is “100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota.”
“We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports,” the group claimed. “In addition to retaliating against whistleblower[s], Tim Walz disempowered the Office of the Legislative Auditor, allowing agencies to disregard their audit findings and guidance.”
Walz addressed the fraud at a press conference in late November, saying it “undermines trust in government,” and “undermines programs that are absolutely critical in improving quality of life.”
“If you’re committing fraud, no matter where you come from, what you look like, what you believe, you are going to go to jail,” he added.
The New York Times reported that what initially appeared to many Minnesotans as an isolated case of pandemic-era fraud has broadened into a much wider concern for state and federal officials.
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The Times reported that over the past five years, according to law enforcement authorities, several fraud schemes proliferated in parts of Minnesota’s Somali community. A number of individuals allegedly created companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never delivered.
