How Relaxed COVID-Era Rules Fueled Minnesota’s Biggest Scam

Authored by Kristin Robbins via RealClearPolitics,

In my testimony before the Senate last week as chair of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and Oversight Committee, I outlined the genesis of Minnesota’s massive fraud scandal, how it expanded under relaxed COVID-era rules, and what steps the federal government can take to help stop the theft of federal tax dollars throughout the country.  

Minnesota’s fraud crisis didn’t happen overnight; it took years. But it exploded when COVID hit, right when oversight was thrown out the window.

How did Minnesota get so bad? In March 2020, Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar authored a bill called the MEALS Act, which eventually became part of a larger COVID relief package. That law allowed states to waive the normal eligibility requirements for the National School Lunch Program. It eliminated income requirements and site inspections and expanded distribution methods. This opened the door for Feeding Our Future, which became the largest COVID fraud scandal in state and national history, stealing at least $250 million from taxpayers. To date, there have been 78 indictments and 61 convictions, with more cases headed to trial this spring.

This was organized, deliberate theft, enabled by weak controls, refusal to take multiple reports of fraud from whistleblowers and the legislative auditor seriously, and a government culture that refused to treat fraud like a crime.

The Feeding Our Future case revealed something even more disturbing: As many as half of the defendants were also receiving state money through other Medicaid-funded programs. But even after that became public back in 2023, Tim Walz and his agencies did nothing to stop those defendants from receiving additional state dollars.

Billions of federal COVID dollars didn’t start the staggering fraud in Minnesota, but that did supercharge a system that had already been compromised.

The original fraud scandal was tied to the Child Care Assistance Program, a federal program meant to help low-income families with children. There had been allegations of fraud reported with CCAP since 2011. By 2014 and 2015, there were raids, charges, and convictions of child care providers for billing non-existent or absent children, often exceeding $1 million in fraud in a single case.

Then in March and April of 2019, just months into the Walz administration, the legislative auditor published two major reports outlining CCAP fraud. Those reports detailed fraudulent providers and alleged movement of millions of dollars in cash out of Minnesota to Somalia, including allegations that some of that money was funding terrorism.

Whistleblowers have told us that shortly after those reports were released, the Department of Human Services shut down the criminal investigation unit for child care fraud.

Rather than pursuing fraud as a crime, the Walz administration began renaming fraud as “overpayment.” Cases were routed to an internal “overpayment committee” to decide whether reimbursement should even be pursued. Staff were no longer allowed to speak with their counterparts at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension without supervisor approval.

Our committee has now uncovered fraud in multiple Medicaid programs, including autism centers, sober homes, non-emergency medical transportation, integrated community supports, and housing stabilization services.

In December, we held a hearing on credible allegations of fraud in two additional areas: adult day services and assisted living facilities. We have now seen allegations of fraud in 14 Medicaid programs. It is staggering.

The former first U.S. attorney who led these prosecutions estimated fraud at $9 billion, and that doesn’t include fraud in SNAP or child care programs.

Minnesotans expect their tax dollars to go toward roads, schools, health care, and public safety, not to fund criminals purchasing resorts in Kenya and luxury homes and cars. Even more alarming are the allegations that Minnesota taxpayer dollars have made their way into the hands of terrorist organizations like Al-Shabaab, directly or indirectly. The money is literally flown out in suitcases from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.

In 2017, estimates suggested $100 million in cash left annually. According to TSA, outbound cash was $342 million in 2024 and $350 million in 2025. That is astonishing. And it is wildly disproportionate compared to other airports. Minneapolis’ outbound cash is 99% higher than Dallas, Atlanta, LAX, and JFK, and 90% higher than Seattle.

So where do we go from here? 

Minnesotans are right to be outraged, and I hope other states learn from Minnesota’s failures.

We need a culture that treats fraud as a crime, not as “overpayment.”

We need to standardize and enforce basic internal controls. Both federal and state government need to require documentation, not attestation, to verify eligibility.

We need more audits and stronger oversight.

We need the federal government to enforce existing laws requiring states to pay back funds within one year when fraud or “overpayment” is found. We need more resources at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and CMS to investigate these cases. And we need stronger federal authority to track and investigate large sums of cash leaving our country.

We need leaders willing to stand up to this injustice and protect the most vulnerable.

Citizens in Minnesota and throughout the country deserve better. The time for accountability and justice is now.

Kristin Robbins has served in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019 and is chair of the Minnesota Fraud Committee.