OAN Staff Blake Wolf and Brooke Mallory
12:20 PM – Monday, December 1, 2025
A social media account representing over 400 Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) workers recently accused Minnesota Democrat Governor Tim Walz of being “100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota” — in relation to a scheme that took advantage of the “Feeding our Future” program —among other fraud across state agencies.
During the Biden administration, Feeding Our Future sponsored sites participating in the federal Federal Child Nutrition Program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture — a program intended to provide meals to children, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program allowed for-profit restaurants and off-site food distribution to qualify for financial reimbursements. However, a slew of fraudsters exploited the program, and according to federal prosecutors, the total fraud exceeded a whopping $250 million.
Meanwhile, this past weekend, the Minnesota DHS employees X account accused Walz (D-Minn.) of actively working to quiet whistleblowers attempting to uncover systematic fraudulent activity in which state agencies were billed for millions of dollars in social services that were never delivered. The post also accuses Walz and admin officials of “systematically retaliating against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression,” and of working to discredit and suppress fraud reports.
However, as of December 1st at 11:40 a.m. PT, the X account had been suspended — a development that only intensified suspicion online. Some users have even speculated that Governor Walz or members of his administration might have been involved in its suspension.
At first, the fraud appeared to be isolated to Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future scandal, which claimed to be feeding children during the COVID-19 pandemic, only to create a network of fake meal sites and inflated invoices to Minnesota’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded school nutrition programs.
The organized scheme resulted in the theft of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, making it the largest COVID-19 fraud case in the nation and leading to the conviction of at least 59 individuals.
Adding fuel to the fire, a June 2024 report from the Center of the American Experiment also estimated that more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds were lost to fraud across several Minnesota programs since 2019, including autism treatment centers, personal-care-attendant services, housing assistance, and the Feeding Our Future child-nutrition scandal.
On November 24th, “District Judge Nancy E. Brasel sentenced [Somali immigrant] Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 24, to 120 months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release for his role in the $300 million Feeding Our Future case, the largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the United States, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen. Nur was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $47,920,514,” Minnesota’s DOJ announced.
Additionally, in February this year, another Somali immigrant, Najmo M. Ahmed, pleaded guilty for her role in the $250 million fraud scheme as well — with the charges announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick. That investigation was led by the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
“According to court documents, Najmo M. Ahmed helped her husband Said Ereg run a small storefront grocery store in Minneapolis called Evergreen Grocery and Deli. In April 2020, Ereg enrolled Evergreen Grocery and Deli in the Federal Child Nutrition Program as a food distribution site under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. Under the direction of her husband, Ahmed signed falsified meal count sheets … claiming Evergreen Grocery and Deli served 3,250 children – twice a day – during the week of Jan. 24, 2021. Between April 2020 and April 2021, Evergreen Grocery and Deli claimed to have served over 1.4 million meals to children.”
“Evergreen Grocery and Deli received over $4.2 million in payments from Feeding Our Future based on fraudulent claims. Ereg transferred funds from Evergreen’s business accounts into personal accounts in his name and Ahmed’s name, and Ahmed knew that the large sums of money her husband deposited into her account were proceeds from illegal activity.”
Since then, additional fraud schemes targeting Minnesota’s social programs have continued to surface, many involving members of the state’s Somali immigrant community. Although Somalis make up only roughly 1% of Minnesota’s population, they have been “disproportionately represented among accused defendants and suspects” in several high-profile fraud cases. Biden extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Somalis in July 2024, up until March 17, 2026.
Out of 86+ defendants charged across Minnesota in cases involving Feeding Our Future, Housing Stabilization Services (HSS), and autism therapy fraud, “at least 78 are Somali or Somali American,” according to U.S. Attorney’s Office announcements. However, other agencies have cited even higher numbers — maintaining that the percentage is closer to 95%.
A recent New York Times piece, citing law enforcement officials, also reported that Minnesota Somali communities have made “small fortunes” by creating companies that claim to provide social services, billing the state for millions of dollars — but never delivering on their claims.
“Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports. Instead of partnership, we got the full weight of retaliation by Tim Walz,” the Minnesota DHS X account wrote on Saturday. “It’s scary, isolating and left us wondering who we can turn to.”
The post went on to further accuse Walz of “disempowering the Office of the Legislative Auditor, allowing agencies to disregard their audit findings and guidance. Media and politicians supporting Tim Walz or the [Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party] agenda attacked whistleblowers who were trying to raise red flags on fraudulent activities.”
“This is a cascade of systematic failures leading up to Tim Walz. Agency leaders appointed by Tim Walz willfully disregarded rules and laws to keep fraud reports quiet – even to the extent of threatening families of whistleblowers. These same leaders are not qualified for their jobs, instead getting leadership jobs via Tim Walz’s friendship so state government were left floundering,” the post continued.
State leadership “did not want to appear to discriminate against certain communities” and therefore were “unwilling to take action, such as stopping fraud, that would have an adverse impact on their image,” they added.
“Fundamentally, Tim Walz is dishonest, lacks ethics and integrity, has poor leadership abilities, and has never taken any accountability for his role in fraud. Instead, Tim Walz deflects by blaming national politics for his own failings and distracts the public with inveterate lying. These lies include his reference of a budget surplus under his tenure. Fact is, Minnesota never had a surplus, we had been given federal ARPA funds that were conflated as surplus money otherwise, we’d be in a deficit. And those ARPA funds, which were meant to be temporary funds were used to create more leadership positions for Tim Walz ‘buddies.’”
In response, President Donald Trump announced an end to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for “Somalis in Minnesota” due to the rampant fraud, proclaiming that the state of Minnesota under Walz is “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”
“I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota,” Trump previously wrote. “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing.”
“Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!” he added.
Trump also reposted an X post from Founder of the RAIR Foundation Amy Mekelburg on December 1st in relation to the matter.
Minnesota is said to host one of the largest, if not the largest, Somali diaspora outside Somalia/East Africa, with around 28,053 just in Hennepin County. According to a 2025‑compiled county breakdown of recent U.S. Census/ACS data, the statewide Somali population in Minnesota is estimated at 61,353.
It is also worth noting that although recent U.S. Census–based analyses put the Somali count near 61,000 to 64,000, community estimates and older estimates have ranged much higher — up to about 80,000, according to Factually.
Somalia is widely ranked among the most corrupt nations in the world. On the 2024 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Somalia scored 9/100 and placed 179th out of 180 countries — one of the worst scores globally. Fears of racism accusations have also reportedly delayed ongoing probes, as the Somali community wields growing political influence.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
What do YOU think? Click here to jump to the comments!
Sponsored Content Below