The news of 78 indictments involving an alleged Somali fraud scheme that bilked Minnesotans to the tune of more than $1 billion dollars has shocked the nation. Even so, investigators reportedly aren’t even halfway to the bottom of the scheme. The cost to those who most need the defrauded government entitlement programs, and the trickle-down cost Americans pay come tax time, is just the beginning. The pain is multiplied by the fact that some of that money went to fund groups linked to terrorist activity like Al Shabaab.
President Donald Trump responded to the Somali scheme on Truth Social:
“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. Governor Walz and his radical left cronies have turned Minnesota into a fraud factory—time to clean house!"
Quick to stop the bleeding in a practical solution, the president said in a later post: “Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER! Effective immediately, we are terminating TPS for Somalis in MN—NO MORE!"
Free breeds Fraud
Where there are free programs, waste, fraud, and abuse are prevalent. Off the Press compiled some of the figures the federal government released relating to the fraud that has plagued entitlement programs. Trafficking in SNAP benefits increased 1.6% between 2015 and 2017. That amounted to $1.27 billion stolen from people who rely on the food assistance program. The store violation rate during that same period was 12.7%. The rates of both trafficking and store violations have increased since the 2012 to 2014 study period, according to the USDA.
However, according to Zipdo, an educational data resource site, pure fraud only accounts for about 1%-3% of total welfare program expenses. The US Department of Human Services estimates that welfare fraud costs taxpayers roughly $8 billion a year. In California, the Department of Social Services claimed to recover more than $10 million in welfare fraud in 2020.
Improper payments – to the tune of $236 billion – reported by 14 agencies across 71 programs in 2023, account for a bigger share, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Changes From Somali Scheme
The alleged multi-layered Somali-linked scheme of child nutrition, housing stabilization and autism therapy programs in Minnesota go back to the COVID pandemic in 2020. The original federal investigation of the Feeding our Future fraud began with a tip to the FBI by a whistleblower at the Minnesota Department of Education in April 2021. The US Attorney’s office in Minnesota reportedly called it the nation’s largest pandemic fraud. Federal prosecutors reported that only around 3% of the funding granted to Feeding Our Future meal sites was spent on food for children. The rest of it, they said, was funneled to conspirators for personal gain, such as luxury purchases and real estate.
Investigative journalists at watchdog groups covered the trial. But it was the conservative journalists at City Journal that brought the story back into the limelight and linked the fraud to the al Qaeda terrorist group al Shabaab. In doing so, they sparked President Trump’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for Somali immigrants and an investigation by Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer, both of which sent the far-left narrative into chaos and unleashed a torrential tirade from X posters.
Comer wrote in a statement to Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz:
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating reports of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs. The Committee has serious concerns about how you as the Governor, and the Democrat-controlled administration, allowed millions of dollars to be stolen. The Committee also has concerns that you and your administration were fully aware of this fraud and chose not to act for fear of political retaliation. The Committee therefore requests documents and communications showing what your administration knew about this fraud and whether you took action to limit or halt the investigation into this widespread fraud.”
Recovering From Fraud
Comer’s investigation may usher in the legislative changes and agency checks to minimize the widespread fraud in welfare programs. The pure shock value of the alleged Somali scheme has sensitized Americans to the presence of fraud in government welfare programs, even as law enforcement is reportedly still digging to discover the full scale of the theft.
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