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 –...