Free Republic

As we’ve reported, federal prosecutors have uncovered massive fraud in Minnesota’s federally funded food child nutrition programs, where scammers – many of them of Somalian descent – allegedly ripped off over a billion dollars from taxpayers. Some are predicting the end of Gov. Tim Walz’s political career, as this went down under his watch, and it’s been revealed that Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) held her campaign victory party in 2018 at a restaurant owned by a man who was convicted in March on 21 counts related to the scandal, including wire fraud, federal programs bribery and money laundering. Not a...

As the Trump administration is reportedly preparing to deploy 100 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to Minnesota, home to an estimated 87,000 people with Somali ties, Lutheran church leaders are pushing back against federal immigration enforcement actions with evangelism. Last Tuesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said ICE agents are being deployed to the Twin Cities to specifically target the Somali community, which has faced allegations of rampant fraud involving the state’s benefit system after federal prosecutors charged dozens of individuals with stealing over $300 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota-based nonprofit....

In July 2019, Minnesota state officials spotted early signs of fraud that would eventually siphon away more than $1 billion in taxpayer money, but they quickly faced pressure from leaders of the charitable group Feeding Our Future to stop asking questions, according to multiple former employees at the Minnesota Department of Education.

Minnesota is still reeling from the biggest fraud scandal in its history. A sprawling, stunning, almost unbelievable heist of federal money intended to feed hungry children during the pandemic. And at the center of the storm sits Aimee Bock – former schoolteacher, mom-of-two, and the woman federal prosecutors branded the mastermind of a $300million meals-for-kids scam. Bock is already convicted. She's already behind bars. And she's facing a sentence that could lock her away for most of the rest of her life. But her lawyer, Kenneth Udoibok, says she is nothing more than a scapegoat – the fall-girl for a...

Minnesota once prided itself on its Scandinavian-style safety net – high taxes, generous benefits and a shared belief that no child should ever go hungry. But that image lies in ruins after a billion-dollar fraud spree that siphoned taxpayer money away from the needy and poured it straight into luxury mansions, high-end cars, overseas real estate and designer lifestyles. What authorities first hoped was a one-off pandemic scam has now been exposed as something far bigger – and far uglier. Federal prosecutors say that over the past five years, scores of scammers – many operating inside Minnesota’s Somali diaspora –...

A group of Minnesota state government employees said they wrote to former Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) multiple times "warning them" about Gov. Tim Walz and what they described as his "incompetence, fraud scandals and retaliation." "We tried our best to keep the public informed as our tweets are public. Maybe Kamala Harris turned a blind eye to fraud like her running mate?," the Minnesota Department of Human Service Employees account — which says it represents more than 480 current staff members at the Minnesota Department of Human Services — posted on X. "Over the...

More than 50 defendants have been convicted in connection to the massive Feeding Our Future fraud investigation since the first indictments came down in September 2022.

United States District Judge Nancy E. Brasel sentenced Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, age 36, to 28 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a $300 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally program to feed hungry kids during the COVID-19 pandemic. Farah helped orchestrate the largest known COVID-19 fraud scheme called Feeding Our Future in Minnesota. Farah and his co-defendants stole more than $47 million by claiming to serve 18 million meals to kids at more than 30 food distribution sites. Farah was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $47,920,514. He's...

In many of the countries we’re drawing migrants from, women are treated like second-class citizens, like objects to be used, abused, and discarded at some man’s will. These are not just isolated attitudes; they’re deep-seated cultural norms. And yet, we continue to welcome this disgusting mindset into our country under the left-wing banner of “tolerance and diversity.” This isn’t just reckless behavior; it’s dangerous and deadly, to boot. ... The latest case out of Minnesota proves that yet again. A 42-year-old Somali man was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl. That’s horrifying enough on its own. But what’s even more...

An Islamic center in Minnesota penned a gushing letter of support for a Somalian migrant convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl. Qalinle Ibrahim Dirie, 42, was convicted in May of first-degree criminal sexual conduct after he was found guilty of abducting the girl from her backyard and raping her in June 2024. Following his conviction, Dirie's local Islamic center, Al-Ihsan Islamic Center in St. Paul, submitted a heartfelt letter begging Hennepin County District Court Judge Michael Burns to consider the convicted criminal's 'character' before delivering a sentence, Alpha News reported. The letter, titled 'Community Support Letter for Qalinle Dirie,' was...

Omar Fateh, the Somalian American democratic socialist running for mayor of Minneapolis, once went to bat for the fraudsters behind a $250 million scam that involved stealing from a government child nutrition program during the COVID pandemic. Later, when the infamous Feeding Our Future scam in Minnesota was exposed, Fateh returned $11,000 in campaign donations that he received from donors tied to the scam. Fateh is now running for Minneapolis mayor, and earlier this month, he rocketed to the top of the race when the city’s local Democratic Party endorsed him. Feeding Our Future was a key player in the...

A candidate running for mayor of Minneapolis has called Somalia his “home” despite being born in America and running for American office. Omar Fateh, a current Minnesota state senator and mayoral candidate, was born in Washington, D.C., to Somali immigrants. Yet, during his state Senate campaign, he repeatedly referred to Somalia as his “home.” “I understand that our Somali communities are all connected to each other, here in Minnesota and back home, and I ask for your support. There’s always been a link between our community here as well as back home and I’m running to bridge that gap and...

Federal prosecutors secured their 46th conviction in the free-food scandal when Ahmed Mohamed Artan, Defendant No. 8, entered a guilty plea. Artan, now age 40, now billed out of Golden Valley, pled guilty to one count of wire fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s press release can be read here. The hearing took place this afternoon at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. Your correspondent was there.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison raked in $10,000 in campaign donations shortly after meeting with individuals linked to a nonprofit that stole $250 million from a federal program meant to feed hungry children during the pandemic. “I’m not here because I think it’s going to help my re-election,” Ellison said during the Dec. 11, 2021, meeting with two future criminal defendants linked to the Feeding our Future scandal, according to audio obtained by the Center for the American Experiment, a conservative Minnesota-based nonprofit. Days later, on Dec. 20, 2021, Ellison received $10,000 in campaign contributions from individuals linked to Minneapolis...

A federal jury in Minneapolis Wednesday convicted Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and former restaurant owner Salim Said on charges of wire fraud and bribery in a trial that followed a lengthy investigation into an alleged scheme to fleece taxpayers out of $250 million by exploiting government child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jurors deliberated about five hours before finding Bock, 44, guilty on all seven counts. They convicted Said, 36, of all 21 charges, which also included five counts of money laundering. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ordered Bock and Said jailed and did not set a...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz definitely doesn’t need another scandal a month before Election Day, but he’s getting one anyway. While Walz had enough to deal with after his mediocre vice-presidential debate performance opposite Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance on Tuesday, CNN is putting more on his plate by reaching back into his handling of his state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, CNN published a story about fraud under Walz’s governorship as the misappropriation of state funds led to what the Department of Justice called “the single largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation.” Feeding Our Future — a program...

The Feeding Our Future scandal is the largest known covid-era fraud, coming in somewhere between $250 million and $500 million. It was extraordinarily brazen: various nonprofits pretended to feed many hundreds of thousands of nonexistent children, and billed Minnesota’s government. The money was federal, but the program was administered by Tim Walz’s Department of Education. Many criminal prosecutions have followed, but no heads have rolled at the Department of Education or anywhere else. And Governor Walz has never been held accountable. Now, the House Education and Workforce Committee has issued a subpoena to Walz for documents relating to the scandal....

Ramsey County District Court Judge John Guthmann in 2022 admonished Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) for making “inaccurate” and “false” statements in claiming he forced the governor to continue making payments to the scandal-ridden Feeding Our Future nonprofit, which is at the center of a scheme to steal $250 million from a coronavirus-era welfare program. Breitbart News reported about how Gov. Walz’s lax oversight of a federal food aid program led to dozens of Somali migrants stealing $250 million for a program meant for children in need. In September 2022, the Justice Department charged 47 Somali immigrants in Minnesota with stealing...

Charlie Kirk @charliekirk11Welcome to the race, Tim Walz!Let’s make sure America knows who you are.You helped ignite the George Floyd riots, the worst the country had seen in decades. While Minneapolis burned, you stalled on deploying the National Guard for an entire day, blaming the city for not submitting the right paperwork. You let your daughter leak the Guard's deployment plans online, so that rioters would know how long they had to loot the city with impunity. Minneapolis is a war zone because of you.Just days after the attempted murder of Donald Trump, you called him and his supporters "fascists,"...

Minnesota’s Senate majority leader on Monday called for Education Commissioner Heather Mueller to resign for what he described as “dishonest” statements she made about her agency’s efforts to prevent an estimated $250 million in pandemic fraud. Minnesota’s political world was turned upside down Tuesday when U.S. Attorney Andy Luger announced charges against 48 Minnesotans for allegedly defrauding the federal government’s child nutrition programs of $250 million in a little over 20 months. “These 48 defendants engaged in a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,” Luger said during a press conference, describing the $250 million total as just the “floor” because the...