Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Largest Funder of Al-Shabaab? Investigators Point to Minnesota Taxpayers

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Largest Funder of Al-Shabaab? Investigators Point to Minnesota Taxpayers · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Do you still plan to deploy the National Guards dark
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Bat if they need it right now?
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  Speaker 2: Other places need it more, But if they knew we
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: had a very good meeting, yes, and then we talked
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: about that.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: But if they need it, I would do it.
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  Speaker 3: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
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  Speaker 2: Good Monday morning. It's a forty seven morning I've made.
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  Speaker 2: It's so nice to have you with us, and we've
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  Speaker 2: got a very big story for you that you need
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  Speaker 2: to share wherever you can. Your tax dollars going directly
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  Speaker 2: to terrorist organizations in Somalia? How is it happening through fraud,
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  Speaker 2: waste and abuse in our government? And we have all
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  Speaker 2: the details for you. But first I want to tell
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  Speaker 2: Morning Update. It's the forty seven Morning Update and it
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  Speaker 2: starts right now.
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  Speaker 3: Story number one.
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  Speaker 2: I want to take you back to election day and
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  Speaker 2: I want you to remember what Donald Trump said on
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  Speaker 2: election day, if you vote for him, going to get
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  Speaker 2: rid of waste, fraud and abuse within our government. There
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: was something that was created called doge and then it
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  Speaker 2: inspired conservatives around the country in different states to actually
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  Speaker 2: start looking at waste fraud and abuse in their state budgets.
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  Speaker 2: And what we're finding now is incredible amounts of waste
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  Speaker 2: fraud abuse, not just in local governments but statewide and
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  Speaker 2: the federal government obviously. Well, now we're finding out where
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  Speaker 2: some of that money was actually going. This is a
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  Speaker 2: headline that should concern every American. The largest funder of
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  Speaker 2: Al Shabab, a terrorist organization, is now the Minnesota taxpayer.
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  Speaker 2: Minnesota is drowning in fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have
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  Speaker 2: been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Waltz Alone.
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  Speaker 2: Democratic state officials overseeing one of the most generous welfare
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  Speaker 2: regimes in the country have been asleep at the wheel
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  Speaker 2: or knew it was happening all along and sanctioned it.
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  Speaker 2: And the media, duty bound by progressives right, have refused
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  Speaker 2: to connect the dots or report on it. And that's
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  Speaker 2: why we're telling you about it right now. In many cases,
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  Speaker 2: the fraud has allegedly been perpetrated by members of Minnesota's
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  Speaker 2: sizable Somali community. Federal counter terrorism sources are now confirming
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  Speaker 2: that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent
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  Speaker 2: back directly to Somalia, where they are ultimately landing in
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  Speaker 2: the hands of a terear group, Al Sabab. As one
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  Speaker 2: confidential source put it, the largest funder of Al Chabab
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  Speaker 2: is the Minnesota taxpayer. The City Journal says their investigation
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  Speaker 2: shows what happens when a tribal mindset meets a bleeding
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  Speaker 2: heart bureaucracy, when imported clan loyalties collide with a political
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  Speaker 2: class that's too timid to offend, and when accusations of
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  Speaker 2: racism are cynically deployed to shield criminal behavior, The predictable
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  Speaker 2: resort is graft, with taxpayers left to foot the literal bill.
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  Speaker 2: If you were to design welfare program to facilitate fraud,
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  Speaker 2: it would probably look like Minnesota's Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services Program.
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  Speaker 2: The HSS program, the first of its kind in the country,
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  Speaker 2: was launched with what they described as a noble goal
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  Speaker 2: to help seniors, to help addicts, to help the disabled,
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  Speaker 2: and to help the mentally ill secure housing right who
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  Speaker 2: could possibly be against that? It was designed with quote
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  Speaker 2: low barriers, as they described it, to intrigue and minimal
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  Speaker 2: requirements for reimbursements. Nonetheless, before the program went live in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty, so not that long ago, officials pegged its
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  Speaker 2: annual estimated price tag at just two point six million, Right,
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  Speaker 2: because now, just two point six million is nothing. Well,
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  Speaker 2: guess what happened. Costs quickly spiraled out of control. A
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  Speaker 2: program that they said was only going to cost two
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  Speaker 2: point six million paid out more than twenty one million
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  Speaker 2: dollars claims in the following years.
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  Speaker 1: Guess what happened.
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  Speaker 2: The annual cost shot up to forty two million, Then
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  Speaker 2: they shot up again to seventy four million, then they
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  Speaker 2: shot up again to one hundred and four million. Now,
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  Speaker 2: how does something in twenty twenty go from two point
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  Speaker 2: six million to four years later going to one hundred
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  Speaker 2: and four million. It was all done by design to
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  Speaker 2: launder money. During the first six months of twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: for example, payouts have already hit sixty one million dollars.
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  Speaker 2: On August the first, Minnesota's Department of Human Services moved
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  Speaker 2: to scrap the entire HSS program, noting that payments to
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  Speaker 2: seventy seven housing stabilization providers have been terminated this year
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  Speaker 2: due to credible allegations of fraud. Joe Thompson, then the
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  Speaker 2: acting US Attorney for the District of Minnesota, went even further,
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  Speaker 2: stating that the vast majority of the HSS program was
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  Speaker 2: straight up fraudile. Now they knew that this was happening
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  Speaker 2: and Democrats didn't care, or maybe it was actually designed
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  Speaker 2: to happen the way that I'm describing it right now.
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  Speaker 2: On September the eighteenth, Thompson announced criminal indictments of HSS
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  Speaker 2: fraud against multiple individuals, six of whom, according to the
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  Speaker 2: US Attorney's Office spokesperson, are members of Minnesota's Somali community.
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  Speaker 2: Thompson made clear that this is just the first round
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  Speaker 2: of charges for HHS fraud that his office will be prosecuting, saying, quote,
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  Speaker 2: most of these cases, unlike a lot of medicare fraud
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  Speaker 2: and medicaid fraud cases nationally, aren't just over billing, Thompson
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  Speaker 2: said at the press conference announcing these indictments, saying, quote,
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  Speaker 2: these are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to
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  Speaker 2: defraud the system, and that's unique in the extent of
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  Speaker 2: which we have here in Minnesota. Thompson said many firms
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  Speaker 2: enrolled in the program operated out of lapidated storefronts or
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  Speaker 2: run down office buildings. The perpetrators often targeted people recently
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  Speaker 2: released from rehab, signing them up for Medicaid services they
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  Speaker 2: had no intention of ever providing. He noted that many
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  Speaker 2: owners of the companies encouraged and engaged in HSS fraud
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  Speaker 2: had other companies through which they build other Medicaid programs,
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  Speaker 2: such as the EIDBI Autism Program, the Adult Rehabilitated Mental
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  Speaker 2: Health Services Program, the Integrated Community Support Program, the Community
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  Speaker 2: Access for Disability Inclusion, all of these programs which had
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  Speaker 2: automatic yesses because of Medicaid waiver services. What we see
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  Speaker 2: our schemes tracked upon, schemes draining resources meant for those
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  Speaker 2: in need. It feels never ending. Thompson said, I have
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  Speaker 2: spent my entire career as a fraud prosecutor. In the
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  Speaker 2: depth of the fraud Minnesota truly takes my breath away,
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  Speaker 2: he said at the press conference on September the eighteenth,
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  Speaker 2: the same day that the JHS fraud charges were announced,
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  Speaker 2: The US Attorney's Office also reported that a man who
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  Speaker 2: had become the fifty sixth defendant to plead guilty in
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  Speaker 2: the two hundred and fifty million dollar Feed our Future
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  Speaker 2: fraud scheme as well. That was founded in twenty sixteen.
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  Speaker 2: Feeding Our Future was a quote small Minnesota nonprofit that
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  Speaker 2: sponsored daycares and after school programs to enroll in the
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  Speaker 2: federal child nutrition program. Guess what happened the organization that
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  Speaker 2: organizations that Feeding Our Future sponsored were primarily owned and
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  Speaker 2: operated by members of yet again, Minnesota's Somali community. According
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  Speaker 2: to two former state officials with connections to law enforcement,
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  Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, Feeding Our Future received three point four
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  Speaker 2: million in federal funding dispersed by the state and the
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  Speaker 2: months after the COVID nineteen pandemic began, the nonprofit rapidly
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  Speaker 2: increased its number of sponsored sites. Using fake meal counts,
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  Speaker 2: doctor to tenance rec and fabricated invoices. The perpetrators of
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  Speaker 2: fraud ring claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day,
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  Speaker 2: seven days a week to underprivileged children, of course, in
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  Speaker 2: the name of COVID. In twenty twenty one, Feeding Our
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  Speaker 2: Future received nearly two hundred million dollars in funding, and
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  Speaker 2: no one decided to just like go and find out, like, hey,
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  Speaker 2: are they actually feeding people. This is a group that
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  Speaker 2: was founded in twenty sixteen. It was a small Minnesota
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  Speaker 2: nonprofit sponsored these daycares after school programs enrolled in the
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  Speaker 2: federal child Nutrition program, and then ballooned to two hundred
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  Speaker 2: million dollars in funding in twenty twenty one, and no
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  Speaker 2: one decided to go check and see what's really going on.
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  Speaker 2: So here's what you really need to know. In reality,
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  Speaker 2: the money was being used to fund lavish lifestyles, purchase
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  Speaker 2: luxury vehicles, and by real estate in the United States,
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  Speaker 2: not just the United States, also in Turkey and in Kenya.
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  Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, Minnesota officials raised concerns about the nonprofit's
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  Speaker 2: rapid expansion. In response, the group filed ay lawsuit alleging
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  Speaker 2: racial discrimination related to outstanding applicants applications and noting that
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  Speaker 2: feeding our future caters to foreign nationals.
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  Speaker 1: So, how dare you question us? You're racists? Right? Liberalism?
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  Speaker 2: One oh one playbook there quote, that's the standard operating
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  Speaker 2: playbook for the cohort when in doubt, claim racism, claim bias.
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  Speaker 2: That's what a former Minnesota State center and a nonprofit leader,
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  Speaker 2: David Gaither said, Even if the facts don't point to that,
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  Speaker 2: it allows for many folks in the middle or on
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  Speaker 2: the left center to stay silent. Gaither believes the mainstream media,
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  Speaker 2: alongside Minnesota's Democratic establishment, have long turned a blind eye
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  Speaker 2: to fraud within the Somali community, that in turn allowed
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  Speaker 2: the problem to metastasize, saying, the media does not want
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  Speaker 2: to put a light on this, and if you're a politician,
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  Speaker 2: it's a significant disadvantage to you to alienate the Somali community.
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  Speaker 2: If you don't win the Somali community, you don't win
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  Speaker 2: in Minneapolis. And if you don't win Minneapolis, you can't
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  Speaker 2: win the state. End of story. Now, the fraudsters have
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  Speaker 2: leveraged their growing political influence to cultivate close ties with
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  Speaker 2: Minnesota's elected officials. Several individuals involved in the Feeding Our
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  Speaker 2: Future scheme donated to or appeared publicly with the Lam Mohmer,
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  Speaker 2: the Somali born congresswoman from Minneapolis. Omar's deputy district director
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  Speaker 2: Ali s advocated, I'm behalf of Feeding Our Future. Omar Fanna,
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  Speaker 2: a former state senator who recently ran for Minneapolis mayor,
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  Speaker 2: lobbied the governor Waltz in support of the program, and
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  Speaker 2: one of the accused, a person Abd Nor Salam, served
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  Speaker 2: as a senior aide to Minneapolis's Mayor, Jacob Fray. Just
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  Speaker 2: days later, on September the twenty fourth, the US Attorney
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  Speaker 2: Joseph Thompson announced his office office's first indictment and yet
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  Speaker 2: another fraud case. This time, the scheme involved federally funded
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  Speaker 2: autism services for children. The accused of a woman named
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  Speaker 2: Asha Farham Hassan, a member of Minnesota's Somali community, yet
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  Speaker 2: again who has been charged in the Feeding Our Future scam.
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  Speaker 2: She's alleged to have played a role in a fourteen
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  Speaker 2: million dollar fraud scheme perpetrated against Minnesota's Early Initiative Development
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  Speaker 2: and Behavioral Intervention program. Hassan and her co conspirators approached
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  Speaker 2: parents in the Somali community and recruited their children into
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  Speaker 2: autism therapy services. It didn't matter, by the way prosecutor suggested,
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  Speaker 2: if a child did not have an autism diagnosis, Hassan
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  Speaker 2: would facilitate a fraudulent one. Bam and your taxpayers, yet
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: again being abused. In a press release announcing the indictment,
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  Speaker 2: the US Attorney's Office made clear that the alleged autism
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  Speaker 2: fraud scheme extended to a wide network of people. To
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  Speaker 2: drive up enrollment, Hassan and her partners paid monthly cash
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: kickback payments to the parents of children who enrolled. The
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: release reads. These kickback payments ranged from three hundred to
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: fifteen hundred per month per child. The amount of these
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  Speaker 2: payments was contingent on the services DHS authorized a child
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  Speaker 2: to receive. The higher the authorization amount, the higher the kickbat.
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  Speaker 2: Often parents threatened to leave and take their shown to
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  Speaker 2: other autism centers.
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  Speaker 1: If they did not get paid higher kickbacks.
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  Speaker 2: Much like the HSS program, autism claims to medicate in
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  Speaker 2: Minnesota have skyrocketed in recent years. Now, if you want
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: to look at corruption and the Democratic Party, listen to this.
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  Speaker 2: It went from three million in claims in twenty eighteen
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  Speaker 2: to fifty four million in twenty nineteen. That should have
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: been the first red flag, but Democrats didn't care. Then
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  Speaker 2: it went to seventy seven million in twenty twenty, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: if that doesn't scare you, then it went from seventy
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: seven to one hundred and eighty three million in claims
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one. If that doesn't scare you, it
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  Speaker 2: then went to two hundred and seventy five million in
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, and then went because no one was
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: checking the books, to three hundred and ninety nine million
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three. So again this program and your
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  Speaker 2: federal tax dollars were going into it to pay for
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  Speaker 2: these claims of medicaid. In Minnesota, three million in claims
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: for autism in twenty eighteen went to three hundred and
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: ninety nine million in twenty twenty three. Meanwhile, the number
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: of autism providers in the state also spiked from forty
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: one to three hundred and twenty eight over the same period,
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  Speaker 2: with many in the Somali community establishing their own autism
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: treatment centers, citing the need for culturally appropriate programming. By
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  Speaker 2: the time the fraud scheme was exposed, one in sixteen
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  Speaker 2: Somali four year olds in the state had reportedly been
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  Speaker 2: diagnosed with autism, a rate more than triple the state average. Again,
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  Speaker 2: if you were looking for fraud, it was right in
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  Speaker 2: front of you. This is not an isolated scheme. Thompson,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: the US attorney, said in the press release that no
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: one's covering this week. From freeding our future, to housing
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: stabilisition services to now autism services, these massive fraud schemes
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: form a web that is stolen now literally billions of
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: dollars in taxpayer money. Each case we bring exposed another
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: strand of the network. Tax dollars are going to terrace
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: in Somalia because of the Somali community that is now
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: going after your tax dollars and setting up organizations to
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: steal from you. The feeding our future, HSS and autism
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: services cases are far from only.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Examples, they said.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: At least twenty eight fraud scandals of surface since Governor
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Waltz was elected governor nineteen. Most of the large scale
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: fraud rings, according to two former FBI officials who spoke
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: to the City Journal have been perpetrated by members of
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: the Somali community. So let me just end by saying this,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: apparently this is not the end of the story, but
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: the beginning of the story. The amount of corruption, fraud,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: abuse is massive, and none of this would have been
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: exposed if it wasn't for Donald Trump and Conservative members
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: being put into positions of powers to find and expose
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: this type of blatant fraud that was in front of
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: us the entire time.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
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  Speaker 3: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
• 17:09
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  Speaker 3: and we will see you back here tomorrow