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More than 400 employees of the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) accused Gov. Tim Walz of failing to act on widespread fraud warnings and retaliating against whistleblowers.
The Minnesota Department of Human Service Employees account, which says it consists of more than 480 current staff members at the Minnesota DHS, wrote on X that Walz is “100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota.”
“We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports,” the group claimed. “In addition to retaliating against whistleblower[s], Tim Walz disempowered the Office of the Legislative Auditor, allowing agencies to disregard their audit findings and guidance.”
Walz’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz deals with the fallout over fraud allegations against the Somali community in his state. (Abbie Parr/AP Photo)
The group’s claims come as federal prosecutors continue to unravel one of the nation’s largest COVID-era fraud cases.
The Justice Department announced new charges last week against the 78th defendant in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, which prosecutors say involved more than $250 million in stolen funds from a federally-funded child nutrition program and has already resulted in over 50 convictions. Many of the individuals charged come from Minnesota’s Somali community.
The New York Times reported that what initially appeared to many Minnesotans as an isolated case of pandemic-era fraud has broadened into a much wider concern for state and federal officials.
The Times reported that over the past five years, according to law enforcement authorities, several fraud schemes proliferated in parts of Minnesota’s Somali community. A number of individuals allegedly created companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never delivered.
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A street sign for “Somali St” is pictured with Riverside Plaza in the background in Minneapolis’ Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
The Manhattan Institute’s City Journal also alleged in a report, citing unnamed federal counterterrorism sources, that some stolen funds were transferred to Somalia and may have ended up with the terror group Al-Shabaab, though none of the federal charges in the fraud cases include any link to terrorism.
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Walz addressed the fraud at a press conference last week, saying it “undermines trust in government,” and “undermines programs that are absolutely critical in improving quality of life.”
“If you’re committing fraud, no matter where you come from, what you look like, what you believe, you are going to go to jail,” Walz said.
