Tag: fraud

Empty Apartments, Fake Addresses, Stolen Billions: The Somali Transport Empire Walz Ignored

An exchange on Fox News highlighted allegations of widespread fraud involving Minnesota transportation companies, with investigative commentator Nick Shirley describing what he said was extensive abuse tied to state-funded programs and enabled by political inaction.

Shirley appeared with host Jesse Watters to discuss his on-the-ground investigation into transportation providers connected to daycare operations across Minnesota.

According to Shirley, many of the companies receiving taxpayer money appeared to have no legitimate operations at all.

Watters asked Shirley whether community leaders were defending those accused of fraud even if they were not directly involved.

“Like, even if they’re not involved in the fraud, are they still defending the Somali tribe?” Watters asked.

“Well, you heard them,” Shirley responded.

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Somali Suitcase Stash: Feds say $130 million moved from Ohio airport to Minnesota on way overseas

ederal agents investigating a Somali immigrant operation that moved massive amounts of cash in suitcases from the Minneapolis airport to overseas have uncovered a new leg of the courier journey: the Columbus, Ohio airport.

Homeland Security Department officials told Just the News that Transportation Security Administration officers tracked and flagged about $136 million in bulk cash in outbound luggage at the passenger checkpoints at John Glenn Columbus International Airport since November 2023.

The cash movements were made by U.S. citizens of Somali origin who flew out of the Columbus airport en route to either the airports in Minneapolis or Atlanta, and the couriers always declared the cash as legally required on documents, officials said.

“Typically, when they go to Minneapolis, they drop off the cash and then a subsequent courier travels abroad from Minneapolis to Dubai through Amsterdam,” one official familiar with the investigation told Just the News on Tuesday, speaking only on condition of anonymity.

Multiple Somali communities involved

The officials said they appear to have uncovered a massive cash movement operation that gathered money from multiple Somali immigrant communities in the West, Midwest and South that eventually brought luggage filled with currency to Minneapolis for flights overseas.

Just the News reported exclusively last week that TSA detected nearly $700 million in cash in luggage leaving the Minneapolis airport in 2024 and 2025, frequently headed on a route to Amsterdam and then Dubai where U.S. officials lost the tracking. The TSA agents routinely alerted investigators during the Biden years, but there was little interest in probing the money movements further until President Donald Trump took office last year.

The cash movements out of Minnesota’s largest airports by the Somali immigrant couriers were 90 to 99 times larger than the total amounts moved out of major international airports like John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City or Seattle and Atlanta, officials said.

As investigators began tracking the money backwards throughout its journey, they discovered the operation in Columbus, officials said Tuesday.

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Dr. Oz on MN Fraud: ‘We Are Taking the Largest Action of Its Kind Ever in Medicaid History’

Dr. Oz announced what he described as the largest enforcement action in Medicaid history, saying his administration has begun demanding financial documentation from states and deferring hundreds of millions of dollars in payments amid concerns about fraud and improper spending.

According to Dr. Oz, the move requires states to submit detailed receipts for Medicaid expenditures, with a significant portion of funding potentially withheld while reviews are conducted.

“So we are taking the largest action of its kind ever in Medicaid history, by asking the state to give us all the receipts, and we’re going to defer could be hundreds of millions of dollars,” Dr. Oz said. “A quarter of money that’s not going to go to the state.”

Dr. Oz specifically addressed criticism from Minnesota’s congressional delegation, pushing back on claims that the action would harm residents.

He said the state has sufficient financial reserves to absorb the impact.

“Now I just heard all that belly aching from Congressman and Congresswoman from Minnesota,” Dr. Oz said.

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CA Mayor Drops a Bombshell On the NGO Scheme Defrauding Americans

El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells appeared in an interview with Real America’s Voice host Dan Ball to criticize California’s homeless funding structure, arguing that billions of dollars intended to address homelessness are being allocated without input from local governments most affected by the crisis.

Wells said cities like El Cajon, which he said have absorbed a disproportionate share of San Diego County’s homeless population, are excluded from decisions about how homelessness funds are distributed.

He placed blame on the California Homeless Task Force and county leadership, saying elected local officials are sidelined while non-governmental organizations control the money.

“The County board says we have no idea how much is spent. To make matters worse. They’re in conjunction with a homeless Task Force, that they’re the people who are on that homeless Task Force decide where all the money goes,” Wells said.

“Well, guess who serves on that homeless Task Force. All the heads of the NGOs. So the NGO’s get to make the decisions about where the money is spent and guess where they spend it?”

Ball interrupted Wells to clarify his point, comparing the structure to allowing those who benefit from the funds to control their distribution.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you, but are you telling me that’s like letting the inmates run a prison, so the people that get to say where the money goes. Are the people that are getting the money in the nonprofit groups,” Ball asked.

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If Fraud In Minnesota Looks Bad, Wait Till You See Gavin Newsom’s California 

As a former California state assemblyman who spent four years on the Budget Committee, I had a front-row seat to Sacramento’s obsession with “pulling down” federal dollars, turning welfare programs into a free-for-all.

Then-state Auditor Elaine Howle ran a lean operation, issuing spot-on reports about waste and vulnerabilities — and getting ignored time and again. California maximized payments for SNAP, Medi-Cal, and unemployment insurance with little regard for fraud controls.

That same reckless mindset has fueled scandals across blue states, with Minnesota serving as the appetizer to California’s main course of fiscal disaster.

Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future fraud — where crooks were convicted last March of pocketing $250-300 million in federal child nutrition funds by claiming phantom meals for kids — was a mere fraction of what was to come.

Today, Minnesota’s likely fraud toll has ballooned, with nearly $9 billion in suspected Medicaid scams since 2018, involving fake providers, ghost services, and out-of-state hustlers. Despite 80 charged, 50-plus guilty pleas, and assets like luxury cars forfeited in the Feeding Our Future scam, recoveries are a drop in the bucket. State agencies have ignored red flags, paralyzed by fears of discrimination lawsuits — or even just being labeled “racists.” And that allowed fraudsters to run wild.

But if Minnesota’s the starter, California’s the feast.

The Golden State’s Covid-19 unemployment insurance debacle at the Employment Development Department (EDD) was a masterclass in negligence: $177 billion paid out, with fraud hitting $20 billion by official counts and up to $32.6 billion by independent estimates. Scammers exploited lax ID checks, using stolen Social Security numbers for bogus claims while the real workers who owned those SSNs labored for their daily bread.

The financial recoveries? Pathetic.

And now, in an effort to repay $20-23 billion in federal loans, businesses have been slapped with their fifth year of Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) surcharges — $84 per employee extra in 2025, rising yearly. In other words, Gavin Newsom’s California punishes job creators for his government’s failure. Interest could soon top $1 billion annually, with ongoing unemployment insurance shortfalls piling on.

Then there’s the expansion of Medi-Cal to cover illegal aliens, fully implemented in 2024. Promised costs: $3 billion or more a year. Actual costs: $9.5 billion, with $8.4 million coming from the General Fund in 2024-25, enrollment nearing 2 million, and per-person expenses soaring.

California isn’t legally allowed to spend federal money on covering illegal aliens. But through the magic of financial fungibility, California has figured out how to force taxpayers in Texas and Florida to pick up the tab. This must stop.

Facing a big budget blowout, Sacramento froze new adult enrollments from January 2026, axed dental benefits for this group, and slapped on $30 monthly premiums starting in 2027. All of this is projected to save roughly $80 million short-term but billions over time.

Yet it still drains resources from citizens, pulling in indirect federal funds while exposing taxpayers to runaway costs.

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James Comer Says Ilhan Omar Is “At the Top of the Suspect List” in Massive Minnesota Fraud Scandal — Ethics Complaints Incoming, Claims Her Husband Profited

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer dropped a bombshell this week, suggesting that far-left Rep. Ilhan Omar sits “at the top of the suspect list” in the sprawling Minnesota fraud scandals involving taxpayer-funded daycare and healthcare programs.

The comments came during a pointed exchange with journalist Alison Steinberg, who raised serious concerns about whether members of Congress themselves may have benefited from money funneled through political action committees tied to fraudulent daycare and healthcare schemes.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn has leveled explosive allegations against Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, claiming that a lack of accountability regarding massive taxpayer fraud in Minnesota is linked to the Speaker’s own financial networks.

Minnesota has become ground zero for some of the largest pandemic-era fraud cases in U.S. history, involving the alleged theft of hundreds of millions of dollars intended to feed children and provide healthcare services.

Many of these cases have centered on networks tied to Somali-run nonprofits and daycare operations, fraud that went unchecked for years under Democrat leadership.

When asked how Americans can trust Congress to police fraud if lawmakers themselves are implicated, Comer made it clear that there is a formal mechanism to deal with corruption on Capitol Hill.

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Fraud ignored: Former Homeland Security investigator reveals how fraud cases weren’t prosecuted

Jeremy Christenson, a former Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent, joined Liz Collin on her podcast and explained how cases of cash smuggling and fraudulent day care centers were ignored by prosecutors.

Christenson, who worked as a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent for 16 years, is also a former air marshal and police officer in Minnesota.

Christensen said many of the cases he investigated “went away into thin air.” He had concerns ever since he started investigating cases of fraud in Minnesota some 10 years ago. But with Somali fraud making national headlines, he had to bring what he witnessed as an investigator to light.

Fraudulent day care investigations, back in 2015

Christenson told Collin that “around 2015, a case landed on my desk from my supervisor. He advised me that the state was running a fraud case regarding daycare fraud in Minneapolis through Health and Human Services or Department of Human Services.”

“Over the next several weeks and months, I attended … planning meetings with this task force of about 20 personnel of various law enforcement agencies, the Health and Human Services, BCA, St. Paul PD, Minneapolis PD and it was all revolving around fraudulent daycares,” Christenson said.

“They were setting up sham daycares, fake bills, fake students, or just enrolling students that never came,” he added.

Christenson also pointed out a suspicious detail: “Never — not one of the daycares I served warrants on, not one person was ever present.”

As for evidence, he explained how investigators found “empty buildings, stacks of invoices, and student records of people that our surveillance showed never went there.”

But what happened next has bothered Christenson ever since. He said the investigative task force “all of sudden, it just evaporated — just went away into thin air.”

As for the investigation into the fraudulent day care centers in the Twin Cities, Christenson said he had “no idea whatever happened with the case.”

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Prosecutor Calls Newsom ‘King Of Fraud’ For Oversight Failures

U.S. First Assistant Attorney Bill Essayli Thursday called California Gov. Gavin Newsom “the king of fraud,” accusing him of a lack of oversight on spending to address homelessness.

Essayli made the comments on the “Fox and Friends” telecast, during which he discussed the federal fraud charges that were filed in October against real estate executives Steven Taylor and Cody Holmes for allegedly misusing grant money meant for homeless housing.

Holmes, 31, of Beverly Hills was charged with mail fraud charge that was allegedly linked to millions of dollars in grant money that the state paid Shangri-La Industries to purchase, build and operate homeless housing in Thousand Oaks, just north of Los Angeles. Holmes was Shangri-La’s chief financial officer.

Taylor, 44, of Brentwood, was charged with seven counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of money laundering.

Essayli Thursday said the charges are the “tip of the iceberg” in an investigation he launched with a task force in April. He said more charges would be coming, probably later this month.

The state spent $24 billion in the last five years to address homelessness and can’t account for where the money went, Essayli said on “Fox and Friends.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday on X said,  “California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible??? The Fraud investigation of California has begun.”

Newsom’s press office fired back on X. It called Trump a liar and noted Newsom has “BLOCKED $125 billion in fraud, arrested criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers, and protected taxpayers from the exact kind of scam artists Trump celebrates, excuses, and pardons.”

The Center Square reached out Thursday afternoon to the governor’s office, but did not get a response.

When The Center Square asked the White House Thursday about Newsom, the press office pointed to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments during a press briefing on Wednesday. Leavitt told reporters that Trump has directed all agencies to look at federal spending programs “in not just Minnesota, but also in the state of California, to identify fraud and to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, all those who have committed it.”

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Billions in healthcare fraud discovered in California, Minnesota ‘pales in comparison’: Dr Oz

Billions of dollars in alleged fraudulent healthcare spending is being investigated in California, specifically probing foreign nationals operating illegal hospice facilities — officials announced Friday in a bombshell press conference.

“We have witnessed a sevenfold increase in hospice in LA County, sevenfold. That doesn’t happen naturally,” Dr Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told The Post during at the press conference.

“There is not seven times more deaths in LA County than there were five years ago. These are fraudsters, and these do tend to be foreign influences, either Russian and Armenian gangs, mafia, that are leading a lot of these efforts.”

Fraudsters who run these facilities are working with about “100 bad doctors,” who convince a patient they’re dying to enroll them in hospice care, Dr Oz said, adding about 100,000 people have handed over their Medicare numbers.

“We are major focused on this issue, and I think our suspicion, our belief, is that the fraud in California will magnify whatever’s happening in Minnesota,” United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. “What’s happening in Minnesota pales in comparison to the level of fraud that we believe is occurring in California.”

Dr Oz said the Trump administration is also cracking down on taxpayer money being used to treat illegal immigrants for elective procedures.

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BUSTED: Ilhan Omar Caught Trying to Funnel $1M to a “Substance Abuse Clinic” Operating Out of a Restaurant Run by Three People at the Same Address — GOP TORPEDOES the Earmark

Another Minnesota money pipeline just got shut down, and this one leads straight back to Rep. Ilhan Omar.

The funding, which was tucked into a federal spending bill, was purportedly destined for a “substance abuse clinic” in Omar’s home state of Minnesota.

However, a shocking investigation led by Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) revealed that the “clinic” was anything but legitimate.

During an interview on Fox Business, Senator Ernst detailed the absolute absurdity of the proposal, describing a trail of red flags that would make any honest taxpayer’s blood boil.

“What I uncovered the other day, in one of our spending bills making its way through Congress, was a $1 million earmark from Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

“This earmark was supposedly going to a substance abuse clinic, which actually happened to be housed in a restaurant and run by three individuals who share the same residential address, according to their IRS paperwork. Tons of red flags.

“So this is what we saw with the fraud involving the daycare centers. Now we see other earmarks coming directly from members of Congress where it seems fraud is being perpetrated as well.

“I raised the issue, and fortunately, the House has now stripped that earmark out of that spending bill. But again, this is how easy money has been flowing to bad actors in Minnesota.”

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