MINNESOTA – Republican State Senators Jordan Rasmusson of Fergus Falls and Senator Paul Utke of Park Rapids speak out after reports of possible ties between fraud and terrorism in Minnesota.
Rasmusson said human services fraud continues to be ‘a huge problem in Minnesota’ and Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney’s Office is involved in an investigation into a possible link between the fraud and possible financing of terrorism overseas.
“What they believe is [there are] billions of dollars in taxpayer money that is going to criminals and now we have seen recent reporting about how Minnesota’s fraud problem could be financing terrorism overseas,” Rasmusson said. “A concern is with money being transferred from Minnesota from these fraud schemes through informal networks of money traders associated with Al-Shabaab.”
The claims were first reported by the City Journal, a publication published by the Manhattan Institute, a public policy think tank based in New York. Flag Family Media has not independently verified the claims in the story.
State Sen. Paul Utke visits with The Flag’s Steve Hallstrom
Utke told The Flag’s Steve Hallstrom Al-Shabaab “is an Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group” that is benefitting from the fraud.
“For every dollar that gets transferred into Somalia in this case, Al-Shabaab gets a cut of it,” he said.
State Sen. Jordan Rasmusson visits with Flag Family News Reporter Chris Larson
When asked by Flag Family News about the fraud link to Human Services, the department said, “Minnesotans are concerned about fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid programs. We’ve launched a new webpage to support transparency in our work. It details how we’re strengthening fraud prevention, detection and enforcement. The work of safeguarding Medicaid dollars is not done in isolation; it requires partnerships with lawmakers, law enforcement, care providers, Tribal and county governments, and concerned citizens.”
Rasmusson and Utke sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen requesting he look into the claims – and whether terrorism is being funded by taxpayer money. Minnesota’s Republican Congressional delegation also sent a similar request.
“Minnesota has clearly had a fraud program for a while and if you go back to 2018 and the childcare fraud case that originally kind of tipped off on how fraud in Minnesota could be impacting that terrorism over overseas,” Ramusson said. “Since then, we have just found more and more evidence of how vast Minnesota’s fraud problem is and the network of fraudsters here in Minnesota.”
He’s calling on leadership in St. Paul to increase accountability.
“We have to tighten up our human services programs. Ensure that there’s accountability among our state agencies for protecting taxpayer dollars,” Rasmusson said. “Then we also have to work closely with the federal government to make sure that wherever these dollars are going, wherever these criminals are going, whether across the United States or abroad, that we’re able to work to find accountability.”
Strengthening Office of Legislative Auditor
Rasmusson said there’s work being done in St. Paul, including a bill that strengthens the Office of the Legislative Auditor, giving them ‘additional resources to ensure that state agencies are actually implementing the audit findings from previous audits.’
In 2019, the Office of the Legislative Auditor issued a report on allegations of fraud related to the state’s Child Care Assistance Program.
It says, in part, “We did not find evidence to substantiate the allegation that the level of CCAP fraud in Minnesota is $100 million annually.” The report also said the office was not able “substantiate the allegation that individuals in Minnesota sent CCAP fraud money to a foreign country where a terrorist organization obtained and used the money.”
“We were having challenges where a state agency would be audited and then they won’t make any changes,” he said. “They wouldn’t actually implement the recommendations to crack down on fraud that the legislative auditor was putting in front of them and so this will increase accountability.”
Addressing fraud at the state level
Utke said the number one focus at the state legislative level is to address fraud.
“Fraud has to be addressed and that should carry right on into the election,” he said. “We need a lot of help and we’ve got to turn this thing around because we’re in a bad, bad place right now.”
He said that if people ‘aren’t paying attention, I don’t know what will wake them up because this is their hard-earned money that’s being wasted.’
