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Posted on 01/11/2026 10:54:20 AM PST by MtnClimber
With evidence emerging of more than $9 billion worth of taxpayer fraud in Minnesota, the media are finally starting to cover the problem of criminals stealing from the taxpayer. But fraud is by no means limited to Minnesota—it is a nationwide problem that leaders at both the federal and state levels need to tackle before it gets even worse.
Even the New York Times was forced to take notice, publishing an explosive article showing evidence of more than $1 billion of taxpayer money stolen by about 80 different Somali immigrants to Minnesota. Just days after the Minnesota story broke, a Somali immigrant in Maine was accused by a whistleblower of defrauding both Medicaid and the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program. The alleged fraudster in the case, while ostensibly working in Maine, ran for office in Somalia and boasted of raising money for the Somali military. According to the whistleblower, his non-profit organization had, for years, sought reimbursement from the federal government for non-existent “services” under Medicaid.
Now, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts announced charges against two Boston men for trafficking more than $7 million worth of food stamps, and a local news station in Oregon uncovered more than $91,000 in food stamp fraud in Oregon just in the month of November alone.
This dizzying list of fraud cases just keeps getting longer.
For years, conservatives have been sounding the alarm about the problem of fraud, but too often those warnings fell on deaf ears. Finally, it seems like the sheer scale of the fraud has shocked the media and their viewers alike: The fraudsters in these cases have stolen more than 10 times as many tax dollars than the entire Somali community in Minnesota pays in taxes each year.
Much of the reporting has focused on the missteps of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who backed down on any attempts to stop the fraud out of fear of being labeled a racist. This scandal is career-ending for Governor Walz, but the story is much bigger than him or Minnesota.
The fraud in these sensational news stories is just the tip of the iceberg.
The non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) has documented nearly $3 trillion in known waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government over the last 22 years. This number is just the waste, fraud, and abuse that we know about—and it does not even include all federal programs. According to GAO, more than 10 cents out of every food stamp dollar is wasted or stolen.
The good news is that President Trump is fighting back against the fraudsters. Not only is the Department of Justice arresting them and putting them in jail, but President Trump signed new policies into law that will make it a lot more difficult to steal from the taxpayer. Instead of checking eligibility annually, states will be required to double-check the eligibility of Medicaid recipients every six months.
President Trump’s new law will also kick millions of illegal immigrants off welfare, reserving welfare resources to help Americans who need it the most. The new law will even penalize states who fail to protect taxpayer dollars, requiring the worst offenders to pay back a percentage of their own erroneous payments.
But there is a lot more to do. Many states, including Minnesota, Maine, and Massachusetts, are using budget gimmicks to hide the real rate of fraud from the federal government. The most salient is called Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility, which is when states don’t bother to check if someone is eligible for one welfare program if they’re already receiving another kind of welfare. This just multiplies fraud where it occurs and gives the false impression to the federal government—and to voters—that fraud is less common than it really is. Every state in America needs to stop using this blatant loophole, do their jobs, and check to ensure that people receiving our tax dollars are actually eligible.
This holiday season’s string of fraud cases is infuriating to hardworking Americans who pay their taxes and follow the rules. But after decades of waste and fraud of our tax dollars, they ought to be the trigger that finally leads to the real reforms we need.
Adam Gibbs is the Communications Director for the Foundation for Government Accountability.
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DemocRATs will deny that there is fraud, waste and abuse. But everyone knows it is true at scales that are mind boggling.
Democrats will just run out the clock until they are back in power and then it’s right back to business as usual.
Zec 4:10 For who has despised the day of small things? .............
Eyes can go many places. There are a lot of small things going on. We need to get involved in some of them.
ALL the welfare fraud comes from democrats. ALL OF IT!
The problem is that there are democrats in the USA, end of story, period, full stop.
People need to go to prison for this.
https://www.gao.gov/fraud-improper-payments
Fraud vs. Improper Payments
While fraud and improper payments are related concepts, they don’t mean the same thing.
Fraud is obtaining something of value through willful misrepresentation. Fraud can sometimes involve benefits that do not result in direct financial loss to the government (such as passport fraud).
Improper payments are payments that should not have been made or that were made in the incorrect amount; typically they are overpayments. While all fraudulent payments are considered improper, not all improper payments are due to fraud.
Waste, abuse, and mismanagement are related but distinct concepts from fraud and improper payments. Waste is when individuals or organizations spend government resources carelessly, extravagantly, or without purpose. Abuse of federal resources occurs when someone behaves improperly or unreasonably, or misuses a position or authority.
Reducing both fraud and improper payments is critical to safeguarding federal funds, ensuring that federal agencies execute their missions effectively, and making sure that the public maintains trust in the government.
DOGE LIIVES!
Ethnicity plays a part in these scams.
It's just that Minnesota is filled with greedy 68 IQ Somalis and equally moronic and corrupt politicians and government officials
They let the grift become so blatant that even serious threats to whistleblowers could not keep a lid on things
Treasury Secretary Bessent laughingly said in an interview that the infamous Somali $120K bribe to a juror in one of the fraud trials was actually a $200K bribe but the Somali woman acting as intermediary pocketed $80K and only offered the juror $120K
When you are dealing with people like this it's a bad day when investigations start
Places like California have sharp operators who have perfected the grift over 5 decades and institutionalized the grift so it's an integral part of the state economy
Minnesota fraud hits all hot button, third rail topics in ways that will enrage the American taxpayer so it is the ideal launch state for the Trump anti fraud project roll out
First off, the Somalis are one of the most loathsome, corrupt, arresting and entitled immigrant class in America. Nobody has any sympathy for them .They were disliked even before the fraud
The have managed their grift by playing the race card so badly that it's going to discredit that weapon that the Left uses so effectively - especially since they play on the American Black slave sympathy even though they were major slavers in Africa
They also expose the fraud in multiple government programs initiated by the good will of the American people but which have become so bloated and fraud ridden the are bankrupting the county.
Somi fraud hits the full spectrum of government entitlement programs -SNAP, Day Care, healthcare, ObamaCare, Aid for Dependent Children, Housing subsidies, education, student loans -if it's government money they are stealing it
People are figuring out that these programs are not “ for the children” and “the children” are the last people to benefit from them
Minnesota fraud is so enraging that the anger will sustain the investigations throughout the rest of the nation
California is the big target because the fraud is so ingrained and so pervasive and because the dollar amounts are so staggeringly large- hundreds of billions of dollars compared to tens of billions in Minnesota
The Demonicrats are lining up the scapegoats now so that the real traitorous Demonicrats doing the welfare fraud will remain free to continue with some other taxpayer-funds-robbing scam.
The testicularly-challenged RINOcrats will make sure justice is not done.
That’s been obvious for DECADES.
Doesn’t it hack you off when lousy politicians always say “social security money will run out.. “ but NEVER SAY welfare will run out. AND gee golly.. we don’t pay enough taxes, right?
Get the scummy ILLEGALS off of SS and Medicaid.
Grrrr.
Yup
And I forgot social security and social security disability fraud and workers comp fraud as other Somali grifts
The dems supported the fraud to keep money flowing into their coffers.
An explosive NYT article showed evidence of more than
$1 billion tax dollars was stolen by some 80 Minn Somalis.
<><>days later, a Maine Somali was accused of defrauding Medicaid AND Covid-era PPP.
<><>while ostensibly working in Maine, the fraudster ran for public office in Somalia
<><>the Maine fraudster’s platform boasted of raising US tax dollars for Somali’s military.
<><>the Maine Somali’s n/p for years, bilked the federal govt for non-existent Medicaid services.
<><>feds charged two Boston men for trafficking more than $7M worth of food stamps,
<><>Oregon uncovered more than $91,000 in food stamp fraud just in Nov alone.
It is virtually impossible for this level of Blatant Fraud to occur without Government Employee’s greasing the wheels and turning a blind eye andor Participating.
Nobody really has a clue how bad it is. One couple, $1.2 billion:
“A married couple, Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King, were involved in a massive healthcare fraud scheme that generated over $1.2 billion by exploiting the Medicare system through medically unnecessary wound graft procedures.
The couple, who co-founded Apex Medical LLC and Viking Medical Consultants LLC, targeted elderly patients in hospices and nursing homes, using untrained sales representatives to push unnecessary amniotic wound grafts and bribing or coercing medical staff to apply them.
They billed Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and private insurers between November 2022 and May 2024, receiving payment for nearly $640 million of the $960 million they charged to the federal government.”
Gehrke and King pled guilty to fraud-----face decades in prison.
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