Tag: fraud

The Bigger Problem that the Tim Walz NGO Scandal Has Exposed 

The Minnesota nonprofit fraud scandal, now expected to cost taxpayers more than $9 billion, is being dismissed by many as an isolated failure. However, this is far from the case, and writing it off as such would be a colossal mistake.

What it actually revealed is a broader problem in the Swamp—that institutions claiming to represent others often operate with little accountability and then quietly drift away from the very people who are footing the bill.

In Minnesota, nonprofit organizations became the perfect vehicle for abuse—shielded from scrutiny, politically protected, and flush with public money. However, in Washington, trade associations operate in largely the same way. They collect millions in dues from American businesses while increasingly choosing to serve their own leadership’s personal and political interests instead of those of their dues-paying members.

Their members only care about being able to deliver good-paying jobs to their employees and securing a more favorable regulatory climate so they can deliver lower-priced goods for the American people; however, you’d never know that if you looked at the public policy priorities of their association leadership officials, who seem more interested in fitting in at woke radical leftist cocktail parties.

Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, has repeatedly broken with Republicans by sharply criticizing Donald Trump, including after January 6, when he called Trump’s actions “mob rule,” urged Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, and faulted the administration’s handling of COVID-19. Despite that record, Timmons later congratulated Trump on his November 2024 victory and suggested they should “work together like we did before.” At the same time, Timmons praised and partnered with Joe Biden, backing the administration’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign and publicly supporting the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act. In 2022, he also donated to Adam Kinzinger’s leadership PAC just days after Kinzinger was censured by the Republican Party.

If a presidency was truly so dangerous five years ago that it was deemed incompatible with democracy itself, it is fair to ask how the same association leadership can now claim alignment and cooperation without any explanation, accountability, or evident change in approach. That kind of abrupt pivot invites skepticism from dues-paying manufacturers who expect their trade groups to be guided by member interests, not political positioning or reputational hedging.

The problem is compounded by a reliance on press releases in place of real relationships. Press releases don’t move policy—relationships do. Manufacturers don’t pay dues for moral posturing, elite signaling, or ceremonial access; they pay for results. When leadership spends years attacking an administration only to reverse course once the election is settled—substituting optics for engagement—it raises a fundamental question about who the organization is really serving.

Keep reading

Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent Announces MASSIVE Cash Rewards for Insiders Who Expose Government Fraud – Promises 10-30% Cut to Blow the Whistle!

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has just declared open season on government waste, fraud, and abuse. The message to the swamp is clear: We are coming for you, and we are paying your colleagues to help us do it.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the launch of a new whistleblower initiative aimed at rooting out fraud, money laundering, sanctions violations, and abuse of government benefits.

As part of the program, Treasury will establish a dedicated website where whistleblowers can confidentially submit information about financial misconduct and taxpayer-funded fraud operations.

“Treasury is strengthening the fight against fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations. Today, [Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)] launched a webpage to confidentially accept whistleblower tips, which may lead to financial rewards,” Treasury Department announced on X.

In a statement, Bessent said, “President Trump has been clear that Americans have a right to know that their tax dollars are not being diverted to fund acts of global terror or to fund luxury cars for fraudsters. At Treasury, we follow the money. We did it with the mafia, we have done it with the cartels, and we’re doing it with the Somali fraudsters. We are going to offer whistleblower payments to anyone who wants to tell us the who, what, when, where, and how this fraud and money laundering has occurred.”

Keep reading

The Department of Justice under Trump Expands Federal Proceedings to Revoke Citizenship from Naturalized Foreign Nationals Who Concealed Crimes or Committed Immigration Fraud

The administration of President Donald Trump has decided to intensify legal procedures aimed at revoking U.S. citizenship from foreign-born individuals who obtained it through fraud, deliberate concealment of relevant information, or ties to serious criminal activity.

The measure, confirmed by the Department of Justice, is part of the broader immigration enforcement strategy advanced by the White House and reinforces the priority placed on national security and strict compliance with federal law.

Under current legislation, U.S. citizenship may be revoked if it is proven before a federal court that it was obtained through material misrepresentation or deception. This is not a new legal mechanism.

Denaturalization has historically been used in cases involving war crimes, terrorism, or proven immigration fraud. What changes now is the operational scope: additional resources, greater coordination among federal agencies, and a clear prioritization of these proceedings within the administration’s immigration strategy.

Who could be affected? Naturalized citizens who, during their application process, concealed criminal records, affiliations with criminal organizations, or substantial information that would have prevented the granting of citizenship.

What is being expanded specifically? Investigative capacity and the number of federal prosecutors dedicated exclusively to these cases.

When does it take effect? Immediately, as it is an internal administrative directive.

Where will it be enforced? In federal courts across the country.

Why now? Because the administration maintains that immigration fraud cannot go unpunished and that public trust in the system requires clear consequences.

How will it be carried out? Through civil lawsuits in which the government must present solid evidence before a federal judge.

Keep reading

Josh Hawley Calls For Indictment of Minnesota AG Keith Ellison over Alleged Ties to Somali Fraudsters

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is calling for the indictment of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) over accusations that he accepted campaign contributions from Somali fraudsters for helping them evade investigation by state and federal officials.

During a Senate Homeland Security hearing on Thursday, Hawley grilled Ellison about a report from the New York Post published last year that accuses the top Minnesota official of taking campaign contributions from Somalis involved in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, where some $9 billion in taxpayer money was stolen under the guise of feeding needy children.

According to the report, Ellison accepted several $2,500 campaign donations from Somali fraudsters after they raised concerns that federal investigators were unjustly looking at their financials.

“You are familiar with the $9 billion in historic fraud out of your state, including the $250 million in the Feeding Our Future program alone?” Hawley asked Ellison, to which he responded, “I am familiar with it.”

“Because the people who ran the Feeding Our Future program came to you in your official office in the state capitol, December 11, 2021, and asked for your help in getting investigators off their backs,” Hawley said.

He continued:

They complained to you for upwards of an hour about state investigators going after them, and they begged you to help them, and you agreed to it amazingly, and we know you did. That’s because it’s all caught on tape …why’d you help them? [Emphasis added]

Ellison denied helping the fraudsters, to which Hawley said Ellison had accepted “$10,000 from them nine days after the meeting.”

Keep reading

Walz administration claims fraud in Minnesota is not ‘uniquely bad’

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) published a so-called “fact check” this week which attempted to “correct misleading information and outright false claims about Medicaid fraud in Minnesota.”

In its fact check, DHS pushed back against claims surrounding Minnesota’s ongoing fraud problems. One of the claims the agency “fact checked” was an unattributed statement which said: “Minnesota’s fraud problem is uniquely bad.”

Shockingly, DHS rejected that claim.

“Fraud is a nationwide challenge and is not unique to Minnesota,” it said. “Higher visibility does not equal higher fraud. Targeted misinformation thrust Minnesota in the spotlight, but we are committed to leading the nation in Medicaid program integrity and fighting fraud.”

Attempting to support its argument, DHS referenced fraud scandals that have occurred in other states. Among them was a $490 million healthcare fraud scheme in California, a $2.5 billion Medicaid scheme in Arizona, and an alleged $14.6 billion Medicaid and Medicare fraud scheme that occurred in New York, Illinois, California, and North Carolina.

While those schemes are substantial, all of those states are larger than Minnesota, and some of those states are significantly larger than Minnesota. Yet, Minnesota still rivals, or outpaces, the fraud schemes being perpetrated in those states.

Since 2022, federal authorities in Minnesota have prosecuted fraud in the $250 million Feeding Our Future scheme. Additionally, the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office estimated that fraud in 14 state-run, Medicaid-funded programs could exceed $9 billion since 2018.

Dozens of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are from the Somali community, have been charged and convicted in Minnesota’s ongoing fraud saga. Fraud has turned into the top political issue in Minnesota, and Gov. Tim Walz was all but ushered into an early retirement because of it.

On top of this, federal prosecutors in Minnesota have repeatedly highlighted how Minnesota is an outlier when it comes to this fraud.

Keep reading

State senator tells Congress: ‘Minnesota is ground zero for the fraud epidemic’

A Minnesota state senator took the national stage Tuesday and delivered a blistering assessment of the state’s handling of taxpayer dollars.

Sen. Mark Koran, R–North Branch, testified before a U.S. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs subcommittee during a hearing titled “Examining Fraud and Foreign Influence in State and Federal Programs.”

The hearing, chaired by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., focused in part on what lawmakers described as widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social welfare programs.

Koran, who has served nine years in the Minnesota Senate and on the Legislative Audit Commission, painted a picture of systemic failure.

“I appreciate the opportunity to share my insight on the fraud as I’ve seen it in my nine years as Minnesota state senator as well as being on the Legislative Audit Commission,” Koran began.

He described the bipartisan commission as responsible for appointing the nonpartisan legislative auditor, whose job is to review programs across state government and flag misuse of taxpayer dollars.

“I can tell you that most of these audits are bad,” Koran said. “One of the most common failures is state agencies not verifying that grant recipients did the work that they were paid to do.”

He cited a January 2026 audit in which, he said, “state employees were backdating and fabricating documents after an audit had started, looking to mislead our auditors.”

“Fraud in Minnesota is pervasive and systemic, from the executive branch through the state agencies,” he said. “Even when the legislature puts safeguards in place, they’re often ignored and there are rarely any real consequences.”

Koran did not mince words when describing the scope of the problem.

“The devastation of this incompetence and complicity totals far more in dollars than the media, Gov. [Tim] Walz, or the Democrats admit in public. It’s not millions, it’s not hundreds of millions, it’s billions of dollars stolen,” he testified.

He placed part of the blame squarely on Gov. Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Keep reading

Ilhan Omar Posts Stunning Tweet that Seemingly Calls for President Trump’s EXECUTION After He Comments on Somali Fraud

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) made an extremely disturbing statement on X that many are interpreting as a call for President Trump’s execution.

On Tuesday, Trump sat down for an interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business to discuss his administration’s efforts to crack down on the massive fraud happening across America, espically in Minnesota.

At one point, Trump specifically referenced the Somali community’s role along with Omar’s in the fraud.

“Somalia has come in here. What they’ve done to our country, these people, they’ve come into our country, and what they’ve done with that fake congresswoman. She’s so bad,” Trump to Kudlow.

Omar was furious at what she read. She proceeded to blast Trump as the head of the “Ped*phile Protection Party” before talking baout what Somalia does with p*dophiles.

“The leader of the Ped*phile Protection Party is trying to deflect attention from his name being all over the Epstein files,” Omar wrote.

“At least in Somalia, they execute ped*philes, not elect them, she added.

Did she call for Trump’s execution? You be the judge.

Keep reading

Pritzker’s “Blind” Trust and $20B in Taxpayer Contracts Raise Waste, Fraud and Abuse Questions

Illinois taxpayers are being asked to believe a fairy tale.

They are told that Gov. JB Pritzker’s massive personal fortune sits inside a “blind trust,” safely sealed off from the decisions of the state government. But the numbers tell a different story – one that is becoming impossible to ignore.

Since Pritzker took office in 2019, companies tied to his blind trust have received more than $20 billion in Illinois state contracts, all paid for with taxpayer money.

That is not blindness. That is precision.

A blind trust is supposed to prevent conflicts of interest, not repeatedly intersect with state spending on a scale that dwarfs most state budgets. Yet under Pritzker, taxpayer-funded contracts continue to flow to companies within his financial orbit – healthcare giants, Medicaid contractors, and corporate entities deeply embedded in Springfield’s lobbying culture.

This is not a one-off coincidence. It is a pattern – and patterns are what expose systems.

Illinois has lived under one-party Democratic rule for years. When competition disappears and oversight weakens, corruption doesn’t need to hide. It operates in plain sight, wrapped in legal language and dismissed as “normal.”

That same pattern extends beyond healthcare and into the Pritzker family’s hospitality empire.

Recent disclosures uncovered show that more than $180 million in taxpayer-funded renovations and upgrades have flowed to the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place since 2011.

Keep reading

Minnesota Fraud Whistleblower Claims She Was Subjected to ‘Smear Campaign’ After Reporting Concerns to State

The fallout continues in Minnesota over the explosive allegations of fraud from last month.

One whistleblower is now going on record, saying that she was subjected to a smear campaign after reporting her concerns to the state, saying she was even accused of being a racist.

The most troubling part of these reports for leaders in Minnesota is that they support the idea that they knew this fraud was happening and did nothing to stop it. People need to be prosecuted for this.

FOX News reports:

Minnesota DHS whistleblower details ‘smear campaign’ after reporting fraud concerns to state

A Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) whistleblower said she has been raising red flags about fraud in the state since 2019, but has faced only unyielding retaliation in response, calling Gov. Tim Walz’s assertion that he was unaware of the problem “absolutely false.”

Faye Bernstein, who has worked for Minnesota’s DHS for two decades in contract management and compliance, said she was subjected to a “smear campaign” for trying to make leadership aware of illegal contracting practices. She said she was called “racist” and that her work responsibilities were diminished.

“There is just a continuous effort to stifle you, to shut you up. And it is impossible to overcome,” Bernstein said on “Saturday in America.”

Federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics. The majority of those charged, so far, in the ongoing investigation are part of Minnesota’s Somali population.

Rather than receiving thanks for speaking out about irregularities within the contracting process, Bernstein wrote in a letter obtained exclusively by “Saturday in America” that the “nearly unbearable retaliation” she faced also included being “trespassed from all DHS-owned or leased property” and investigated “at a great cost to the state.”

To make matters worse, the fraud allegations just keep coming.

Keep reading

Two men charged in $120M adult day care fraud scheme in Queens 

The Justice Department accused two men of stealing $120 million from federal health care programs over the course of a decade by bribing patients to enroll in social adult day cares and submit unneeded prescriptions to a pharmacy.

Inwoo Kim, 42, and Daniel Lee, 56, were charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud. They each face up to 10 years in prison. 

“Today’s complaint targets those who prey upon the vulnerable so they can steal from American taxpayers and defraud government programs meant to help the public,” A. Tysen Duva, who leads the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a Monday statement. 

Kim owns Happy Life and Royal, two social adult day cares in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City. Lee worked as the centers’ program director. 

Charging documents allege the duo began working to submit fraudulent Medicaid and Medicare claims as far back as March 2016. They also purportedly induced patients to submit unneeded prescriptions to a pharmacy Kim used to own.

Patients allegedly received financial incentives, including grocery gift certificates and cash. 

“Please give $10,000 to the Korean members first,” Kim wrote in a 2023 text message, according to the complaint.

Over the course of a decade, Medicaid purportedly paid Kim’s businesses $62 million for their social day care services while Medicare paid the pharmacy $58 million for prescription drugs. 

Kim’s attorney declined to comment. The Hill has reached out to Lee’s attorney for comment.

Kim has faced scrutiny for years. The Department of Health and Human Services has been investigating him since 2021, and the charging documents also indicate an unnamed health plan had received complaints about the kickbacks. 

And in February 2024, New York’s Office of State Comptroller (OSC) identified concerns during a site visit. Day care staff had provided “suspicious” sign-in sheets that appeared to include pre-filled dates and the same handwriting for numerous names, according to the charging documents. 

Keep reading