The nation is learning that the single largest COVID relief-fund fraud in the country occurred in the Somali community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, under Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) tenure, and recently even CNN had to sit up and take notice.
On Friday, CNN reported about the massive amount of theft of government funding that has been going on in Minnesota under Walz. The network noted that non-partisan state auditors have published no less than 16 reports on the massive amounts of fraud occurring in the Gopher State during Walz’s governorship.
But the worst incident in Minnesota also stands as the most expensive fraud concerning COVID funding in the entire nation where 47 Somali immigrants have been charged with stealing $250 million in federal COVID funding.
Under Walz’s leadership, a fake Somali charity called “Feeding Our Future” was found to have defrauded the government of millions of dollars, money that was set aside to help children and families during the COVID crisis, but money that was stolen to pay for high-priced real estate, cars, clothes, travel expenses, and luxuries for the members of the Somali community that managed the funds.
Gov. Walz claimed that they caught the fraud “early” and patted himself on the back for working to clean up the mess and prosecute the fraudsters. But CNN noted that Walz’s own Dept. of Education left the door wide open for this type of fraud.
CNN cited a state auditor’s report that said that the Minnesota Department of Education’s “actions and inactions created opportunities for fraud,” and added that the MDE “failed to act on warning signs.”
Minnesota Republican House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth told CNN that the fraud is a failure of the Walz administration in general and the governor in particular.
“When he is not holding any commissioners responsible, then yes, Gov. Walz is responsible for the fraud that has been ongoing in the state of Minnesota,” Demuth said.
Indeed, so far, Gov. Walz has not fired anyone in his administration for being involved or fingered them as at fault in any of the 16 different audits of fraud in Minnesota.
As CNN noted, “Walz has been a hands-off leader when it comes to seeking accountability for episodes of fraud and mismanagement on his watch.”
“What’s more, some state agencies headed by his appointees have responded defensively in recent months to the audits — a dynamic that [Judy] Randall, who has worked in the department for 26 years, has found surprising,” the outlet added.
CNN said it seems to amount to a “culture of unaccountability” under Walz, who has refused to take any responsibility whatever for the massive amount of fraud that has happened on his watch.
In fact, even as the federal trials prosecuting members of the Feeding Our Future fraudsters continued, a judge had to warn Walz to stop lying about the charity’s fraud.
As far back as 2022, Ramsey County District Court Judge John Guthmann admonished Walz 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.
The Feeding Our Future fraud is also not the only fraud of COVID funding that occurred in Minnesota under Walz. In total some $550 million has been stolen by fraudsters during his tenure.
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