Name: Fraudsters in Minnesota spent millions of taxpayer dollars
Uploaded: 2025-12-12T14:42:00.211Z
Duration: 2 min
Description: A CBS News exclusive report shows how convicted Minnesota fraudsters spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on luxury cars and private villas. The money was stolen from programs that provided services to underprivileged children.

A CBS News exclusive report shows how convicted Minnesota fraudsters spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on luxury cars and private villas. The money was stolen from programs that provided services to underprivileged children.

Minneapolis

A CBS News investigation has uncovered evidence showing that convicted fraudsters in Minnesota spent millions of taxpayer dollars on luxury goods, overseas property, and large cash transfers. Prosecutors report that over a billion dollars were stolen from state-run programs intended to help low-income children, the disabled, and autistic children, with 87 individuals charged and 61 convicted over the past three years.

Authorities say most of those convicted are Somali-American, and some community leaders are concerned about collective blame. Investigations found no evidence linking the fraud to terrorism, despite ongoing federal probes, and immigration raids have recently taken place in the area.

Fraudsters in Minnesota spent millions of taxpayer dollars

A honeymoon in the Maldives, a fleet of luxury cars. Here's a box with more than $270,000 in cash. This was all evidence from a new trove of files obtained exclusively by CBS News, showing how a group of convicted Minnesota fraudsters spent taxpayer dollars. One text message reads, you are going to be the richest 25-year-old. We're not even at the end of the beginning of our pursuit of the stolen money and of the people who stole it. U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen leads the office digging into the wave of COVID-era fraud that hit Minnesota. So how much money are we talking about stolen? I can say with great comfort, well in excess of a billion dollars. In the past three years, 87 defendants have been charged, 61 convicted. The majority of them are Somali-American. Minnesota has the nation's largest Somali population. The perpetrators are accused of ripping off state-run programs intended to feed low-income kids, house the disabled, and provide services to autistic children. This was a get-rich scheme. Andy Lugar was the U.S. attorney who first examined this fraud. He left in January. One of the things we discovered is that a number of the people involved were buying investment property, resort property in Kenya. Fire transfers reviewed by CBS News also show more than $1 million went to Chinese banks. It goes behind a black curtain. It's hard to see where things went beyond that. The Trump administration has said it's investigating whether any of the money fell into the hands of terror groups like Al-Shabaab in Somalia. But both Lugar and Rosen agree the evidence so far shows the criminals were only interested in getting rich. There was never anything that indicated that this was linked to terrorism. Somali leaders worry the community is being held collectively responsible. And this week, there have been ongoing immigration raids. For CBS Mornings, I'm Jonah Kaplan.

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