Tag: minnesota

Minnesota Audit: State Agency ‘Accidentally’ Blocked Kickback Investigation Into Autism Services

A state agency erred when it blocked autism-services kickbacks from being investigated—a decision based on the agency’s flawed, decades-old definition of “fraud,” according to a Minnesota audit released March 17.

That was the key finding of the state’s Office of Legislative Auditor, a state watchdog that conducted a two-year special review. The autism-services program that auditors examined is among many health and welfare benefits that Minnesota’s Department of Human Services runs or oversees.

For months, Minnesota has been a focal point for government-program fraud that could total billions of dollars, with dozens of people, mostly Somalis, having been charged and convicted since 2022. Additional schemes emerged late last year and remain under investigation, with more charges expected, prosecutors have said.

Concerns about fraud have recently expanded nationwide. On March 16, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating an anti-fraud task force. Saying that other states such as California and New York may have fraud problems that are worse than Minnesota’s, the president directed Vice President JD Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson to root out fraud in federally funded social services and welfare programs.

During the Minnesota audit, investigators told auditors that they believed they lacked “authority to investigate allegations of kickbacks” in the autism program without additional claims of “fraud, theft, abuse, or error.”

The department’s fraud definition, set in 1995, failed to specifically include “kickbacks.” Those are payments or “anything of value” to induce referrals to providers of federally funded health care—a practice that is illegal under federal law, the report noted.

Auditors opined that the department had misapplied or misinterpreted a rule that includes that fraud definition. The agency had the power to amend the rule and correct an erroneous federal-law citation “without any legislative action,” the report stated.

“Had [the department] done so at any point since 1995, it would have had clear authority to suspend payments” to providers who were strongly suspected in kickback schemes, according to the report.

Auditors recommended that the agency amend its fraud definition “to clearly include kickbacks”—or lawmakers should do so, the report says.

James Clark, inspector general for the state Department of Human Services, said the department agrees with that recommendation.

However, in his written response appended to the report, Clark said the standard rulemaking process could take a year or two to complete, unless officials or lawmakers agree to fast-track it.

The autism-services program, which has operated in Minnesota since 2013, aims to provide “early intervention” for autism-diagnosed patients who are under age 21.

Under the program, providers receive reimbursement for services rendered.

Federal prosecutors have brought charges against at least two people for alleged autism-services fraud in Minnesota.

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Something Just Happened in Minnesota That Completely Altered My View of Reality

Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services (HSS), signed into law by then-Gov. Mark Dayton (Fricken Commie Labor-Dem) in 2017, came into effect in 2020 under Gov. Tim “Jazz Hands” Walz (Fricken Commie Labor-Dem). The three-year implementation wait was due to the need for federal approval “via a state plan amendment under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,” as my paid LLM research assistant put it.

Stick a pin in that part about federal funding. It becomes important in just a few short paragraphs. 

Anyway, HSS was one of those innocuous-sounding and ostensibly well-meaning programs purportedly meant to, as the Minnesota Prairie County Alliance put it, “help people with disabilities, including mental illness and substance use disorder, and seniors find and keep housing.”

But before we get to the juicy meat of the story, also tuck away in the back of your brain that I felt the names “innocuous-sounding,” “ostensibly well-meaning,” and “purportedly” before even getting to the substance of the program. 

“KARE 11 Investigates began publishing reports on Housing Stabilization Services last spring,” the local station reported Monday, “ultimately uncovering widespread fraud that included questionable billing, bribes, falsifying of records, and even billing for dead clients.” 

“Internal emails, fraud referrals, and county investigative reports obtained by KARE 11 now reveal a pattern of ignored alarms that left vulnerable Minnesotans waiting for help that never came while the state’s costs skyrocketed.”

CBS News has the shocking numbers: “When HSS launched in 2020, the estimated cost was about $2.5 million a year. But by 2024, it ballooned to over $100 million.” This year’s projected cost: $125 million.

Number of needy people actually provided with housing: [Shrug Emoji].

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Exposed: Ilhan Omar’s Ties to Sister’s Minneapolis Health Clinic, Somali Health Company, and Alleged Brother-Husband

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) web of shady family ties goes even deeper than her alleged marriage to her brother — reportedly using her political offices to secure millions of dollars for a Minneapolis health clinic operated by her sister, who is married to a top Somali government official.

Omar’s elder sister, Sahra Noor, states on her LinkedIn profile that she was the CEO of People’s Center Clinics & Services from July 2014 to April 2018. In January 2017, Omar began her two-year term as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. 

People’s Center is in the Minneapolis neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside, nicknamed “Little Mogadishu” for its high Somali migrant population, many of whom do not speak English.

The 2017 capital budget approved by the state legislature included $2.2 million for the clinic, which operates as a nonprofit that has received $33 million in Health and Human Services (HHS) grants since 2002. 

While People’s Center has an active contract pharmacy agreement for HHS’s 340B Drug Pricing Program with “Degdeg’s Carepoint Pharmacy,” signed by Noor in 2015, the pharmacy lost its license in 2017 and is listed as “permanently closed” on Google Maps. 

Omar boasted about getting the $2.2 million for the clinic that was being run by her sister at the time, celebrating the renovations it completed in 2022 along with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), state Sen. Omar Fateh (D-MN), and other Democrats.

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Dem Lawmaker Seriously Suggests Studying the Upsides of Shoplifting 

A discussion during a Minnesota House Labor Committee meeting drew attention after State Representative Dave Pinto raised the idea of studying whether individuals benefit from shoplifting, prompting a sharp response from fellow lawmaker Krista Knudsen.

Knudsen addressed the issue publicly after the committee meeting, expressing disbelief over the suggestion that shoplifting could provide any benefit.

“Hey, Minnesota State Representative Christa Knutson, so today in the Labor Committee, Representative Dave Pinto requested a study for the benefits of shoplifting,” Knudsen said.

Knudsen said she could not identify any positive outcomes from theft for businesses that are targeted.

“There are no benefits to shoplifting for the people that are being shoplifted from I have no idea what else to say,” Knudsen said. “I’m shocked.”

Knudsen repeated her reaction while discussing the issue further.

“Actually, I don’t even know what to say,” she said.

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HHS finds Minnesota child care agency failed to verify attendance records and ‘pursue fraud tips’

The US Department of Health and Human Services found Minnesota’s child care agency failed to adequately verify attendance records or “pursue fraud tips” following an oversight visit in late January, according to a letter obtained by The Post.

HHS’ Administration for Children and Families informed Minnesota officials that its handling of the distribution of federal taxpayer dollars for child care in the state had “not established adequate controls to verify the accuracy of county-issued provider payments based on attendance of children.”

As a result, child care centers could get funding from counties — and counties could then bill the state and the federal government by extension — “without reconciling billed hours against attendance records, even periodically.”

Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families also had “[l]imited staff and resources … to adequately pursue fraud tips and conduct proactive investigations,” Laurie Todd-Smith, HHS ACF deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development, wrote in the letter.

Just four investigators are working for Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program to address all potential fraud.

Additionally, Todd-Smith said, “Minnesota did not demonstrate that they are currently implementing required program integrity training for providers across the state,” meaning all child care center operators have to do is affirm they’ve read requirements to receive funding.

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RFK Jr. Blows the Whistle on $400M Autism Fraud Scheme in Minnesota

Acting HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience for the first time since taking his new role, and he did not shy away from detailing the fraud he says he uncovered after finally stepping into a position of power.

With Medicaid and Medicare alone, Kennedy said, “We lose just on Medicaid and Medicare, $100 billion a year. And it’s all just this, really, ya know, shocking, blatant fraud.”

As HHS Secretary, Kennedy described an industrialized scheme operating out of Florida, where P.O. boxes were set up for companies claiming to sell durable medical equipment like knee braces and wheelchairs.

But there’s one small problem: “They don’t have any knee braces or wheelchairs.”

However, they do have patient identification numbers.

Those ID numbers are used to bill the government for equipment that never ships. Kennedy said many of these schemes are operating out of countries like Cuba or Russia.

He then pointed to another staggering example: Los Angeles has more hospice care providers than the entire rest of the country COMBINED.

How is that possible? That’s because “it’s all fraudulent,” Kennedy said.

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Terror on freeway after Minnesota granted truckers’ license to Somali driver who couldn’t read ROAD SIGNS

Terrifying footage shared on social media showed the truck driving against traffic on US 61 near Troy, Missouri around 8am on Wednesday, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The truck nearly collided with several other cars before finally crossing the median on to the correct side of the road, when it was stopped by police.

The driver, whose name has not been released, had obtained a commercial driver’s license from Minnesota, NewsNation reported.

Police said the driver showed no signs of impairment or medical issues and determined the trucker was going the wrong way because they could not read the road signs.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy addressed the ‘disturbing’ incident in a post on X.

‘We have learned that a truck driver with a Minnesota CDL who couldn’t read basic road signs spent MILES driving the wrong way in an 80 TON truck,’ Duffy wrote.

‘Thanks to Missouri law enforcement, this dangerous trucker is now out of service.’

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Tim Walz Caught Red-Handed: Taxpayers Now Funding 12-Week Vacations for Leftist Rioters

An exchange between Cedrick Frazier and Evan Rowe focused on whether applications for a state program providing up to 12 weeks off work due to injury or harm have been connected to the use of chemical munitions during recent federal law enforcement activity.

Frazier raised concerns about reports and video footage involving federal agents operating in the state and asked whether individuals injured in those incidents had sought assistance through the program.

“It’s one question I do have,” Frazier said.

“We’ve had some federal agents in the state recently. We’ve seen video, we’ve we’ve seen video, we’ve seen We’ve seen statements and interviews, but we’ve seen how there’s been chemical munitions used on some folks that have been out exercising their First Amendment rights, and we know that those cause harm and damage.”

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CORPORATE EXODUS: Woke Target Pays Staggering $110 Million Fee to Terminate Minneapolis Lease

Woke retail giant Target Corp. has reportedly shelled out a jaw-dropping $110 million just to walk away from its massive office space in downtown Minneapolis.

The move marks a final, desperate retreat from the 51-story City Center tower, where the company once occupied nearly one million square feet of prime real estate.

Rather than waiting out a lease set to expire in 2031, Target chose to cut a massive check to wash its hands of the property.

The Star Tribune reported:

After moving out of nearly a million square feet of office space in downtown Minneapolis’ City Center building five years ago, Target paid almost $110 million last month to officially break its lease that ran through 2031.

Now the owner of the 51-story tower at 33 S. 6th St. — an entity tied to South Korean conglomerate Samsung — is preparing to list the property for sale, according to a Feb. 2 loan servicer report.

[…]

The Minneapolis-based retailer has continued to pay rent for the offices as they sat dark, making City Center a symbol of the challenges and uncertainties facing a downtown that relied heavily on its white-collar commuter crowds.

Target did try to sublet the space but didn’t have much luck beyond law firm Fox Rothschild moving into about 40,000 square feet of offices in 2022.

A spokesman for Target declined to comment on the lease-ending agreement but emphasized the company’s commitment to downtown Minneapolis as its second-largest employer. The retailer had been the biggest employer in the area for years until Hennepin Healthcare took the spot in 2024. Last summer, Target called its largest corporate unit back to the office three days a week and consolidated employees into other downtown properties near its Nicollet Mall headquarters.

Several other downtown office towers have sold in recent years, many at deep discounts as they grappled with high vacancies, maturing loans, rising borrowing costs and leery lenders.

Minneapolis, which became the national epicenter of radical “Defund the Police” rhetoric and unrest following the 2020 riots, has struggled to regain its footing.

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JD Vance, Dr. Oz make dramatic move withholding $259.5M Minnesota Medicaid funds in first battle in the ‘war on fraud’

Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that $259.5 million in Medicaid funds for Minnesota won’t be reimbursed due to fraud concerns — giving Democratic Gov. Tim Walz 60 days to submit a “corrective action plan” or face further withholdings.

Vance was joined by Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to make the announcement, which was first reported by The Post — one day after President Trump announced a Vance-led “war on fraud” in his State of the Union address.

The men also announced a national pause on firms that can seek subsidies through Medicare for durable medical equipment like canes and walkers.

“We are going to start very aggressively in the administration cracking down on the people and the organizations that are defrauding Americans,” Vance pledged after being delegated the role by Trump.

Oz said “Gov. [Tim] Walz has 60 days — 60 days, sir — to respond to our letter” if he wants repayment, which Oz said will require the state to “propose and act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem.”

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