Minnesota lawmakers and prosecutors are sounding alarms over a rapidly expanding fraud crisis that has engulfed multiple state-funded social service programs, revealing staggering losses and raising urgent questions about oversight.
According to Fox News, what began with the high-profile Feeding Our Future scandal — one of the largest pandemic-related fraud cases in U.S. history — has widened into a broader reckoning over how state agencies distributed and monitored taxpayer money. Investigators now estimate the true cost could exceed $2 billion.
Republican state Sen. Michael Kreun said none of this should come as a surprise.
“Minnesota has an epidemic of fraud, as the rest of the nation is learning,” he said. “We’ve known here in Minnesota for quite some time that we’ve had a massive fraud problem. And it’s turning out that probably Minnesota is the epicenter of fraud in the United States right now.”
Kreun pointed to the Housing Stabilization Services program as a prime example.
The initiative launched with an annual budget expectation of roughly $2.6 million. But spending exploded to more than $100 million last year, with projections topping $120 million this year — until the state shut it down.
“We’re learning [it is] probably at least $300 million in fraud right now,” Kreun said. “And the fraud was so pervasive that they basically had to shut that program down.”
On-the-ground reviews by Fox News Digital uncovered addresses tied to both Housing Stabilization Services and Feeding Our Future payments that led nowhere. Some claims traced back to empty lots or unrelated businesses, adding to mounting evidence of widespread fabrication.
Kreun warned that other assistance programs may be just as vulnerable, including autism-related services.
That concern took on new weight as federal investigators revealed allegations that one suspected scammer, Asha Farhan Hassan, defrauded the autism-treatment program of about $14 million by billing Medicaid for fake therapy visits, using untrained staff, and paying parents to keep children enrolled.
Prosecutors said she funneled large sums overseas, including to real estate purchases in Kenya.
The autism program’s budget grew from $3 million in 2018 to nearly $400 million in 2023. At least 85 entities are under investigation.
Former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab, who briefly worked on Feeding Our Future, said the scheme stood out not just for its scale, but for how little effort was required to pull it off.
“Honestly, how easy this fraud was to do,” he said. “These fraudsters were just saying that they were spending all this money on feeding kids… and they were just making up these PDFs, putting false names into Excel sheets.”
“I could do that in five minutes on a computer if I had absolutely no conscience,” he added.
Teirab described oversight breakdowns inside state agencies, particularly the Minnesota Department of Education. He argued that staff faced pressure to avoid raising concerns about programs benefiting Minnesota’s Somali community.
“There were huge incentives to just turn the other way,” he said. “There’s a sense of, ‘If we say something, are they going to call us racist?’”
Whistleblower accounts from the Department of Human Services echoed those claims, alleging that employees who questioned suspicious activity were ignored, reassigned, or pushed aside.
The political tensions were on public display when state payments to Feeding Our Future were briefly halted. According to accounts cited by Fox News Digital, local leaders accused state officials of racism — and payments resumed.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and local restaurant owner Salim Said splurged on luxury homes, cars, and lavish lifestyles after claiming they served 91 million meals and took in nearly $250 million in federal funds.
Teirab said another nonprofit, Partners in Nutrition — also known as Partners in Quality Care — has been publicly identified in the ongoing investigation.
Combined with alleged fraud in the Housing Stabilization Services program and elsewhere, losses are expected to exceed $1 billion, with potential totals surpassing $2 billion.
“So that is what we’re dealing with,” Teirab said. “It’s a travesty that our hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being wasted away.”
State officials now face intensifying pressure to overhaul oversight systems, explain how the failures occurred, and prevent similar schemes from weaving through Minnesota’s safety-net programs again.
