AG Pam Bondi reveals how much Somali fraud they are investigating in Minnesota

( Right Scoop )

Attorney General Pam Bondi just revealed, with a shout out to Nick Shirley (wrong @account), just how much Somali fraud the DOJ has been and is investigating in Minnesota.

Here’s what she wrote:

MINNESOTA FRAUD: @NickShirleyyy’s work has helped show Americans the scale of fraud in Tim Walz’s Minnesota. @TheJusticeDept has been investigating this for months. So far, we have charged 98 individuals – 85 of Somali descent – and more than 60 have been found guilty in court. We have more prosecutions coming…BUCKLE UP, LAWMAKERS!

I am incredibly grateful to our U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen and @DMNnews for their dedicated and ongoing work to uncover this fraud and build strong cases against its perpetrators. Here are a few examples of the cases we have prosecuted with other federal partners like @SecScottBessent ⬇️

Scam 1: FEEDING OUR FUTURE — THE LARGEST COVID-19 FRAUD CASE CHARGED IN THE COUNTRY – Claimed to serve children millions of free meals during COVID—few, if any, were ever fed– Submitted fake invoices and fake rosters of kids purportedly receiving meals– 78 defendants charged to date | 57 defendants convicted– 72 of the defendants are of Somalian descent | 5 defendants are currently fugitives in Africa– Millions of taxpayer dollars in fraud proceeds were sent overseas to East Africa and the Middle East-Ultimate price tag? $300-400 million.

In August, we successfully secured the conviction of the Feeding Our Future scheme leader, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah. – Farah was sentenced to 28 years in prison and ordered to pay over $47 million in restitution

And just last month, we sentenced Abdimijad Mohamed Nur — another key player in the Feeding Our Future scheme — to 10 years in federal prison and ordered him to pay millions in restitution – And the crimes in this case don’t end here . . . ⬇️

Scam 2: JUROR BRIBERY Not unlike what you would see in the corrupt Somali judicial system, defendants in the Feeding Our Future case intimidated a cooperating defendant and attempted to bribe jurors – 3 defendants delivered a bag containing $120,000 in cash to a juror’s house the night before closing arguments– They promised more money if the juror voted to acquit all 7 trial defendants– They offered this argument: “We are immigrants; they don’t respect or care about us”

Scam 2: JUROR BRIBERY (continued) According to the defendants, “[T]he government kept attacking Somali culture . . . [and] was very racist.”– This claim is ludicrous: the government was fighting the unprecedented level of fraud being committed

Scam 3: AUTISM TREATMENT MEDICAID SCHEME -Many defendants from the Feeding Our Future scam also set up fake “autism clinics”-Parents in the Somali community reported their children diagnosed as autistic, brought them into daycares disguised as “clinics,” and received huge financial kickbacks-The state government program underwriting this scam was supposed to cost $20 million.Somehow, it ballooned to $200 million…at taxpayers’ expense

Scam 4: MEDICAID FRAUD -Fraudsters identified Minnesota’s Medication coverage program for Housing Stabilization Services – a program meant to help people with disabilities, senior citizens, and people with mental illnesses-Then, they started sham LLCs and began signing up drug addicts and others in halfway houses for services that were NEVER provided.-The program was supposed to cost $2.6 million per year – it exploded to $125 million per year

This is quite the list, and I hope it will now include the fake daycare centers in Minneapolis.