Tim Walz presided over one of the most spectacular government failures in American history.
Minnesota taxpayers thought their money was feeding hungry kids and helping disabled adults.
But Tim Walz just got caught red-handed funding terrorists with your money.
Billions stolen under Walz's watch
Federal prosecutors now estimate the total theft could exceed $1 billion — money that was supposed to help vulnerable Minnesotans but instead lined criminal pockets and funded Islamic terrorists halfway around the world.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson put it bluntly: "I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away."¹
The fraud spans multiple programs that exploded under Walz's administration.
Minnesota's Housing Stabilization Services program started in 2021 with projected costs of $2.6 million.
Instead, it paid out $21 million its first year — then ballooned to $42 million, $74 million, and $104 million in subsequent years.²
During the first half of 2025 alone, costs reached $61 million before federal investigators finally stepped in.
The autism treatment program fraud is even worse.
https://twitter.com/GrageDustin/status/1991682140791271622?s=20
Medicaid autism claims skyrocketed from $3 million in 2018 to $399 million in 2023.³
The number of autism providers exploded from 41 in 2020 to 328 by 2025 — nearly all of them applying for and receiving Minnesota Medicaid funding.
Prosecutors charge that Somali woman Asha Farhan Hassan defrauded the state's autism program of $14 million by promising Somali families kickbacks of $300 to $1,500 per month per child to enroll in fake treatment programs.⁴
The fraud was so pervasive that one in every 16 Somali four-year-olds in Minnesota had been "officially" diagnosed with autism — more than triple the state average.
These weren't legitimate diagnoses.
They were tickets to taxpayer cash that Hassan and her cohorts split with families before sending millions overseas.
Where Minnesota welfare dollars actually went
Here's where this scandal turns from corruption into a national security crisis.
Former Seattle Police detective Glenn Kerns spent 14 years on a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force tracking Somali money networks.
He traced $20 million flowing through hawala networks in Seattle to Africa in a single year.⁵
Hawalas are informal Islamic money-transfer systems that operate outside traditional banking — making them nearly impossible to trace and ideal for funding terrorism.
When Kerns dug deeper into the source of these millions, he discovered the money originated as Department of Human Services benefits from Minnesota's welfare programs.
"We had good sources tell us: This is welfare fraud," Kerns said.
Federal counterterrorism sources confirmed that millions in stolen Minnesota welfare funds ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab — the al-Qaeda-linked terror group responsible for massacring thousands of civilians across East Africa.
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A confidential source told City Journal investigators: "Every scrap of economic activity, in the Twin Cities, in America, throughout Western Europe, anywhere Somalis are concentrated, every cent that is sent back to Somalia benefits Al-Shabaab in some way."⁶
Then came the bombshell admission: "This is a third-rail conversation, but the largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer."
Thompson's office has now charged 70 people in the $250 million Feeding Our Future food aid fraud.⁷
Eight people face charges for the $8.4 million Housing Stabilization Services fraud.
Hassan faces wire fraud charges for her $14 million autism program scam.
But these cases represent just the visible tip of a massive criminal iceberg that Walz allowed to flourish for years.
Walz scrambles to contain the damage as 2026 election looms
Walz only moved to address the fraud crisis after federal prosecutors publicly exposed the schemes and Republicans made it a centerpiece of their campaigns.
In October 2025, with the gubernatorial race heating up, Walz finally ordered a third-party audit of 14 Medicaid programs deemed "high risk" for fraud.⁸
The state hired Optum for a $2.3 million contract to flag suspicious billing.
Payments to these programs will be frozen for up to 90 days while the audit takes place.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kristin Robbins wasn't buying Walz's sudden concern about fraud.
"Releasing this executive order just before today's House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight hearing appears more like a distraction than a solution," Robbins said.⁹
She's demanding an independent Office of Inspector General with real oversight powers — not another Walz-controlled investigation.
The House Republican leadership was even more scathing: "Minnesotans have watched scandal after scandal unfold under Governor Walz, but the fact that there are more than a dozen programs under suspicion proves that Walz's fraud crisis is far worse, and far more widespread, than anyone was led to believe by the administration."
https://twitter.com/GOPMajorityWhip/status/1991542829869592909?s=20
Thompson told legislators that Minnesota's "trust but verify" system no longer works — if it ever did.
"Most of these cases aren't just overbilling," Thompson explained at a 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."¹⁰
He wasn't exaggerating.
Many firms enrolled in welfare programs "operated out of dilapidated storefronts or rundown office buildings."
Some didn't have physical locations at all — just mailboxes and bank accounts to collect taxpayer money.
Walz knew about credible fraud allegations for years but did nothing until the FBI raided businesses and hauled criminals into court.
Even then, he only acted after local news stations started investigating and Republicans began using the scandals in campaign ads.
Minnesota led the nation a decade ago in residents traveling overseas to join ISIS and other terror groups.
Now federal investigators have confirmed that Minnesota taxpayer dollars are funding Al-Shabaab terrorists through welfare fraud that Walz's administration failed to stop.
Americans work hard and pay taxes believing their money will help people who need it.
Instead, Tim Walz let criminals steal billions — money that's now funding Islamic terrorists who want to kill Americans.
¹ Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo, "Minnesota Welfare Fraud: Some Funds Went to Al-Shabaab," City Journal, November 20, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ U.S. Department of Justice, "First Defendant Charged in Autism Fraud Scheme," September 24, 2025.
⁵ Thorpe and Rufo, "Minnesota Welfare Fraud."
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ U.S. Department of Justice, "First Defendant Charged in Autism Fraud Scheme," September 24, 2025.
⁸ CBS Minnesota, "Third party will audit Medicaid billing at Minnesota's Department of Human Services, Walz says," October 29, 2025.
⁹ Minnesota Reformer, "Gov. Tim Walz and a potential GOP opponent face off over fraud," September 17, 2025.
¹⁰ Thorpe and Rufo, "Minnesota Welfare Fraud."
