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An excerpt from the NYTimes - by real investigative journalists
December 18

"An investigation into fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs has broadened significantly, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

The prosecutors told reporters that they were investigating suspicious billing practices in 14 Medicaid-funded programs. Until now, the investigation had focused on only three safety net programs run by state agencies.

“What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes,” Joseph H. Thompson, the federal prosecutor overseeing the investigation said at a news conference. “It is staggering industrial-scale fraud.”

A preliminary assessment suggests that more than half of the $18 billion in taxpayer funds spent on the 14 programs and intended to help low-income, vulnerable people since 2018 was most likely stolen, the federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors described the expansion of their investigation as they announced charges against six new people, accusing them of defrauding safety net programs. That brought to 92 the number of people charged in a yearslong fraud investigation that has roiled state politics in Minnesota and has drawn the attention of the White House. So far, at least 60 people have been convicted. Others are awaiting trial or have fled the country.

The new defendants included two men from Philadelphia who engaged in what Mr. Thompson called “fraud tourism.” He said they had been drawn to the state “because they knew and understood that Minnesota was a place where taxpayer money can be taken with little risk and few consequences.” Lawyers for the men did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Also on Thursday, F.B.I. agents searched a business in a Minneapolis suburb that the authorities say had billed the state more than $1.1 million as part of a program designed to support for disabled adults. A call to the business went unanswered.

The new developments came a week after Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a Democrat, appointed a judge and former F.B.I. agent to oversee a state effort to create stronger fraud safeguards for social service programs."


Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/us/minnesota-fraud-scandal.html