Somalis in Minnesota reportedly stole taxpayer funds through fraud and then funneled said funds to ISIS-affiliated terror groups like Al-Shabaab.
According to reporting from journalists Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo published at City Journal, the alleged fraud involved Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program.
The program was ostensibly designed “to help seniors, addicts, the disabled, and the mentally ill secure housing” by offering “low barriers for entry” and “minimal requirements for reimbursement.”
Though the program was estimated to cost only $2.6 million annually when it was launched in 2020, the cost surged to $104 million in 2024.
Minnesota’s Department of Human Services is now finally moving to scrap the program after discovering numerous “credible allegations of fraud,” most of which involve Minnesota’s large Somali community.
The facts in this story are truly disgusting:
Millions in stolen Minnesota welfare dollars have been funneled to Al-Shabaab — an ISIS-aligned TERROR group.
This happened because Democrats built a system so loose, so corrupt, and so politically timid that fraudsters exploited it…
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) November 21, 2025
“Most of these cases, unlike a lot of Medicare fraud and Medicaid fraud cases nationally, aren’t just overbilling,” then-acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson reportedly said at a September press conference.
“These are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system, and that’s unique in the extent to which we have that here in Minnesota. What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need. It feels never ending. I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away,” he added.
The fraud also involved the Feeding Our Future program that “sponsored daycares and after-school programs to enroll in the Federal Child Nutrition Program.”
“Using fake meal counts, doctored attendance records, and fabricated invoices, the perpetrators of the fraud ring [tied to Feeding Our Future] claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day, seven days a week, to underprivileged children,” Thorpe and Rufo reported. “In 2021, Feeding Our Future received nearly $200 million in funding.”
As Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz oversaw the biggest COVID fraud scheme in the nation.
A Somali crime syndicate stole $250M in COVID cash meant to feed kids. Walz did nothing and his state departments doled out the $.
Members of the fraud donated to Democrats.
DOJ later… pic.twitter.com/fmCWiFWMTy
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 5, 2024
The fraud further involved Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program for children with autism.
The chief suspect, Somali woman Asha Farhan Hassan, “approached parents in the Somali community” and recruited their kids into autism therapy services regardless of whether the kids actually had the disorder.
In a press release announcing Hassan’s indictment, Thompson wrote that she and her partners had “paid monthly cash kickback payments to the parents of children who enrolled.”
“These kickback payments ranged from approximately $300 to $1500 per month, per child,” the press release continued. “The amount of these payments was contingent on the services DHS authorized a child to receive—the higher the authorization amount, the higher the kickback. Often, parents threatened to leave . . . and take their children to other autism centers if they did not get paid higher kickbacks.”
Thompson noted in another press release that all these schemes weren’t isolated.
“From Feeding Our Future to Housing Stabilization Services and now Autism Services, these massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money,” he said.
Indeed, and the most surprising aspect of this story is what eventually happened to all the stolen taxpayer money.
“The Somali fraud rings have sent huge sums in remittances, or money transfers, from Minnesota to Somalia,” Thorpe and Rufo reported. “According to reports, an estimated 40 percent of households in Somalia get remittances from abroad. In 2023 alone, the Somali diaspora sent back $1.7 billion—more than the Somali government’s budget for that year.”
The even more troubling revelation is that “this money has been directed to an even more troubling destination: the al-Qaida-linked Islamic terror group Al-Shabaab.”
Let me get this straight..
Somalians in Minnesota inflated their autism rates to get more Medicaid funding which was then funneled to al-Qa‘ida affiliate al-Shabaab, who are responsible for the most U.S. deaths than any other terror affiliate?
How is this not the biggest story…
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 20, 2025
Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed to Thorpe and Rufo that Minnesota’s large Somali population has funneled millions of taxpayer funds right into the hands of Al-Shabaab.
An official who previously worked on the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) told Thorpe and Rufo that “every cent that is sent back to Somalia benefits Al-Shabaab in some way.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
- Ric Grenell out as head of Trump-Kennedy Center, replacement named - March 14, 2026
- Kyrsten Sinema admits to multi-city sexual romps with married bodyguard - March 14, 2026
- Ilhan Omar primary challenge from anti-ICE lawyer met with skepticism - March 14, 2026
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.