Homeland Security says a fraud investigation is underway in Minneapolis
[December 30, 2025]
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal Homeland Security officials were
conducting a fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis, Department of
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
The action comes after years of investigation that began with the $300
million scheme at the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57
defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the
organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related
fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded
program intended to provide food for children.
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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears before the House
Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday,
Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File) |
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A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or
more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported
14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most
of the defendants are Somali Americans, they said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said then that fraud will not be
tolerated and that his administration “will continue to work
with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters
are caught.”
Noem on Monday posted a video on the social platform X showing
DHS officers going into an unidentified business and questioning
the person working behind the counter. Noem said that officers
were “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other
rampant fraud."
“The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money
is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found,” U.S. Immigration
and Custom Enforcement posted.
The action comes a day after FBI Director Kash Patel said on X
that the agency had “surged personnel and investigative
resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes
exploiting federal programs.”
Patel said that previous fraud arrests in Minnesota were “just
the tip of a very large iceberg."
President Donald Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over
the fraud cases to date.
In recent weeks, tensions have been high between state and
federal enforcement in the area as the Trump administration’s
immigration crackdown focused on the Somali community in the
Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is the largest in the country.
Among those running schemes to get funds for child nutrition,
housing services and autism programs, 82 of the 92 defendants
are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office
for Minnesota.
Walz spokesperson Claire Lancaster said that the governor has
worked for years to “crack down on fraud” and was seeking more
authority from the Legislature to take aggressive action. Walz
has supported criminal prosecutions and taken a number of other
steps, including strengthening oversight and hiring an outside
firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, Lancaster said.
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