November 24, 2025 • 17 mins
-
Election Day Promise & Conservative Push
- Starts by recalling Donald Trump’s pledge to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.
- Mentions a conservative initiative called “Doge” that inspired investigations into state-level corruption.
-
Massive Fraud in Minnesota
- Accusations that Minnesota taxpayers became the largest funder of Al-Shabaab due to welfare fraud.
- Fraud allegedly concentrated in programs like Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) and autism therapy services, as well as the nonprofit Feeding Our Future.
-
Housing Stabilization Services Program
- Launched in 2020 with an estimated cost of $2.6 million.
- Costs ballooned to $104 million by 2024.
- U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson called the program “straight up fraudulent,” citing fictitious companies and fake services.
-
Feeding Our Future Scandal
- Nonprofit founded in 2016 to sponsor child nutrition programs.
- Funding exploded from $3.4 million in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021.
- Fraud involved fake meal counts and fabricated invoices; money allegedly spent on luxury items and overseas real estate.
-
Autism Services Fraud
- Medicaid claims for autism therapy skyrocketed from $3 million in 2018 to $399 million in 2023.
- Kickbacks paid to parents to enroll children, even without diagnoses.
- Number of autism providers surged from 41 to 328, many linked to Somali community members.
-
Political & Media Complicity
- Claims Democratic officials ignored fraud or enabled it.
- Suggests fear of being labeled racist prevented scrutiny.
- Notes alleged ties between fraud perpetrators and politicians like Ilhan Omar and local officials.
-
National Security Angle
- Federal sources reportedly confirm stolen funds were sent to Somalia, benefiting Al-Shabaab.
- Frames this as a threat to U.S. security and a failure of progressive governance.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Do you still plan to deploy the National Guards dark
Bat if they need it right now?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Other places need it more, But if they knew we
had a very good meeting, yes, and then we talked
about that.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
But if they need it, I would do it.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good Monday morning. It's a forty seven morning I've made.
It's so nice to have you with us, and we've
got a very big story for you that you need
to share wherever you can. Your tax dollars going directly
to terrorist organizations in Somalia? How is it happening through fraud,
waste and abuse in our government? And we have all
(00:37):
the details for you. But first I want to tell
you about an amazing opportunity right now that I'm involved
in and I cannot wait for you to take advantage
of it. I want you to take some incredible courses
at Hillsdale College for free. You may not know this,
but Hillsdale College has been influencing conservatives like myself for decade.
(01:00):
They had a huge impact on Charlie Kirk's life, and
even as memorial service they talked about how Charlie took
class after class after class at Hillsdale College. Hillsdale College
is now offering for you, the listeners of this show,
more than forty free I want to say that again,
free online courses. That's right, more than forty free online courses.
(01:24):
You can learn about the works of C. S. Lewis,
the stories in the Book of Genesis, the meaning of
the US Constitution, the rise and fall of the Roman Republic,
or the history of the ancient Christian Church, all with
Hillsdale College's free online courses. Right now, I'm personally taking
The Constitution one oh one. In this course, you're going
(01:47):
to exploit the design and the purpose of the Constitution,
the challenges it faced during the Civil War, and how
it has been undermined for more than a century by
radical progressives and liberals. This twelve electure course is self pace.
It's another reason why I love it. So start whenever
and wherever in our country. We need more Americans like
(02:09):
you and I than understand the Constitution and can defend
the freedom of the American people against the Left, and
they're increasing encroachments on our God given rights. So start
your classes today for free. Start your free Constitution one
oh one course, right Now how do you do it?
Go to Hillsdale dot edu slash Morning Update to enroll
(02:34):
and it's no cost.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
It's easy to get started.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You got to use a special website Hillsdale dot edu
slash Morning Update. Enroll for free Hillsdale dot edu slash
Morning Update. It's the forty seven Morning Update and it
starts right now.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Story number one.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I want to take you back to election day and
I want you to remember what Donald Trump said on
election day, if you vote for him, going to get
rid of waste, fraud and abuse within our government. There
was something that was created called doge and then it
inspired conservatives around the country in different states to actually
start looking at waste fraud and abuse in their state budgets.
(03:13):
And what we're finding now is incredible amounts of waste
fraud abuse, not just in local governments but statewide and
the federal government obviously. Well, now we're finding out where
some of that money was actually going. This is a
headline that should concern every American. The largest funder of
Al Shabab, a terrorist organization, is now the Minnesota taxpayer.
(03:36):
Minnesota is drowning in fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have
been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Waltz Alone.
Democratic state officials overseeing one of the most generous welfare
regimes in the country have been asleep at the wheel
or knew it was happening all along and sanctioned it.
And the media, duty bound by progressives right, have refused
(03:59):
to connect the dots or report on it. And that's
why we're telling you about it right now. In many cases,
the fraud has allegedly been perpetrated by members of Minnesota's
sizable Somali community. Federal counter terrorism sources are now confirming
that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent
back directly to Somalia, where they are ultimately landing in
(04:23):
the hands of a terear group, Al Sabab. As one
confidential source put it, the largest funder of Al Chabab
is the Minnesota taxpayer. The City Journal says their investigation
shows what happens when a tribal mindset meets a bleeding
heart bureaucracy, when imported clan loyalties collide with a political
(04:43):
class that's too timid to offend, and when accusations of
racism are cynically deployed to shield criminal behavior, The predictable
resort is graft, with taxpayers left to foot the literal bill.
If you were to design welfare program to facilitate fraud,
it would probably look like Minnesota's Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services Program.
(05:09):
The HSS program, the first of its kind in the country,
was launched with what they described as a noble goal
to help seniors, to help addicts, to help the disabled,
and to help the mentally ill secure housing right who
could possibly be against that? It was designed with quote
low barriers, as they described it, to intrigue and minimal
(05:33):
requirements for reimbursements. Nonetheless, before the program went live in
twenty twenty, so not that long ago, officials pegged its
annual estimated price tag at just two point six million, Right,
because now, just two point six million is nothing. Well,
guess what happened. Costs quickly spiraled out of control. A
(05:53):
program that they said was only going to cost two
point six million paid out more than twenty one million
dollars claims in the following years.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Guess what happened.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
The annual cost shot up to forty two million, Then
they shot up again to seventy four million, then they
shot up again to one hundred and four million. Now,
how does something in twenty twenty go from two point
six million to four years later going to one hundred
and four million. It was all done by design to
launder money. During the first six months of twenty twenty five,
(06:24):
for example, payouts have already hit sixty one million dollars.
On August the first, Minnesota's Department of Human Services moved
to scrap the entire HSS program, noting that payments to
seventy seven housing stabilization providers have been terminated this year
(06:46):
due to credible allegations of fraud. Joe Thompson, then the
acting US Attorney for the District of Minnesota, went even further,
stating that the vast majority of the HSS program was
straight up fraudile. Now they knew that this was happening
and Democrats didn't care, or maybe it was actually designed
(07:06):
to happen the way that I'm describing it right now.
On September the eighteenth, Thompson announced criminal indictments of HSS
fraud against multiple individuals, six of whom, according to the
US Attorney's Office spokesperson, are members of Minnesota's Somali community.
Thompson made clear that this is just the first round
(07:29):
of charges for HHS fraud that his office will be prosecuting, saying, quote,
most of these cases, unlike a lot of medicare fraud
and medicaid fraud cases nationally, aren't just over billing, Thompson
said at the press conference announcing these indictments, saying, quote,
these are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to
(07:50):
defraud the system, and that's unique in the extent of
which we have here in Minnesota. Thompson said many firms
enrolled in the program operated out of lapidated storefronts or
run down office buildings. The perpetrators often targeted people recently
released from rehab, signing them up for Medicaid services they
(08:10):
had no intention of ever providing. He noted that many
owners of the companies encouraged and engaged in HSS fraud
had other companies through which they build other Medicaid programs,
such as the EIDBI Autism Program, the Adult Rehabilitated Mental
Health Services Program, the Integrated Community Support Program, the Community
(08:32):
Access for Disability Inclusion, all of these programs which had
automatic yesses because of Medicaid waiver services. What we see
our schemes tracked upon, schemes draining resources meant for those
in need. It feels never ending. Thompson said, I have
spent my entire career as a fraud prosecutor. In the
(08:52):
depth of the fraud Minnesota truly takes my breath away,
he said at the press conference on September the eighteenth,
the same day that the JHS fraud charges were announced,
The US Attorney's Office also reported that a man who
had become the fifty sixth defendant to plead guilty in
the two hundred and fifty million dollar Feed our Future
fraud scheme as well. That was founded in twenty sixteen.
(09:15):
Feeding Our Future was a quote small Minnesota nonprofit that
sponsored daycares and after school programs to enroll in the
federal child nutrition program. Guess what happened the organization that
organizations that Feeding Our Future sponsored were primarily owned and
operated by members of yet again, Minnesota's Somali community. According
(09:39):
to two former state officials with connections to law enforcement,
in twenty nineteen, Feeding Our Future received three point four
million in federal funding dispersed by the state and the
months after the COVID nineteen pandemic began, the nonprofit rapidly
increased its number of sponsored sites. Using fake meal counts,
doctor to tenance rec and fabricated invoices. The perpetrators of
(10:03):
fraud ring claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day,
seven days a week to underprivileged children, of course, in
the name of COVID. In twenty twenty one, Feeding Our
Future received nearly two hundred million dollars in funding, and
no one decided to just like go and find out, like, hey,
are they actually feeding people. This is a group that
was founded in twenty sixteen. It was a small Minnesota
(10:23):
nonprofit sponsored these daycares after school programs enrolled in the
federal child Nutrition program, and then ballooned to two hundred
million dollars in funding in twenty twenty one, and no
one decided to go check and see what's really going on.
So here's what you really need to know. In reality,
the money was being used to fund lavish lifestyles, purchase
luxury vehicles, and by real estate in the United States,
(10:45):
not just the United States, also in Turkey and in Kenya.
In twenty twenty, Minnesota officials raised concerns about the nonprofit's
rapid expansion. In response, the group filed ay lawsuit alleging
racial discrimination related to outstanding applicants applications and noting that
feeding our future caters to foreign nationals.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So, how dare you question us? You're racists? Right? Liberalism?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
One oh one playbook there quote, that's the standard operating
playbook for the cohort when in doubt, claim racism, claim bias.
That's what a former Minnesota State center and a nonprofit leader,
David Gaither said, Even if the facts don't point to that,
it allows for many folks in the middle or on
the left center to stay silent. Gaither believes the mainstream media,
(11:31):
alongside Minnesota's Democratic establishment, have long turned a blind eye
to fraud within the Somali community, that in turn allowed
the problem to metastasize, saying, the media does not want
to put a light on this, and if you're a politician,
it's a significant disadvantage to you to alienate the Somali community.
If you don't win the Somali community, you don't win
in Minneapolis. And if you don't win Minneapolis, you can't
(11:52):
win the state. End of story. Now, the fraudsters have
leveraged their growing political influence to cultivate close ties with
Minnesota's elected officials. Several individuals involved in the Feeding Our
Future scheme donated to or appeared publicly with the Lam Mohmer,
the Somali born congresswoman from Minneapolis. Omar's deputy district director
(12:14):
Ali s advocated, I'm behalf of Feeding Our Future. Omar Fanna,
a former state senator who recently ran for Minneapolis mayor,
lobbied the governor Waltz in support of the program, and
one of the accused, a person Abd Nor Salam, served
as a senior aide to Minneapolis's Mayor, Jacob Fray. Just
(12:34):
days later, on September the twenty fourth, the US Attorney
Joseph Thompson announced his office office's first indictment and yet
another fraud case. This time, the scheme involved federally funded
autism services for children. The accused of a woman named
Asha Farham Hassan, a member of Minnesota's Somali community, yet
(12:55):
again who has been charged in the Feeding Our Future scam.
She's alleged to have played a role in a fourteen
million dollar fraud scheme perpetrated against Minnesota's Early Initiative Development
and Behavioral Intervention program. Hassan and her co conspirators approached
parents in the Somali community and recruited their children into
(13:15):
autism therapy services. It didn't matter, by the way prosecutor suggested,
if a child did not have an autism diagnosis, Hassan
would facilitate a fraudulent one. Bam and your taxpayers, yet
again being abused. In a press release announcing the indictment,
the US Attorney's Office made clear that the alleged autism
fraud scheme extended to a wide network of people. To
(13:38):
drive up enrollment, Hassan and her partners paid monthly cash
kickback payments to the parents of children who enrolled. The
release reads. These kickback payments ranged from three hundred to
fifteen hundred per month per child. The amount of these
payments was contingent on the services DHS authorized a child
to receive. The higher the authorization amount, the higher the kickbat.
(14:00):
Often parents threatened to leave and take their shown to
other autism centers.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
If they did not get paid higher kickbacks.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Much like the HSS program, autism claims to medicate in
Minnesota have skyrocketed in recent years. Now, if you want
to look at corruption and the Democratic Party, listen to this.
It went from three million in claims in twenty eighteen
to fifty four million in twenty nineteen. That should have
been the first red flag, but Democrats didn't care. Then
(14:30):
it went to seventy seven million in twenty twenty, and
if that doesn't scare you, then it went from seventy
seven to one hundred and eighty three million in claims
in twenty twenty one. If that doesn't scare you, it
then went to two hundred and seventy five million in
twenty twenty two, and then went because no one was
(14:50):
checking the books, to three hundred and ninety nine million
in twenty twenty three. So again this program and your
federal tax dollars were going into it to pay for
these claims of medicaid. In Minnesota, three million in claims
for autism in twenty eighteen went to three hundred and
ninety nine million in twenty twenty three. Meanwhile, the number
(15:11):
of autism providers in the state also spiked from forty
one to three hundred and twenty eight over the same period,
with many in the Somali community establishing their own autism
treatment centers, citing the need for culturally appropriate programming. By
the time the fraud scheme was exposed, one in sixteen
Somali four year olds in the state had reportedly been
diagnosed with autism, a rate more than triple the state average. Again,
(15:36):
if you were looking for fraud, it was right in
front of you. This is not an isolated scheme. Thompson,
the US attorney, said in the press release that no
one's covering this week. From freeding our future, to housing
stabilisition services to now autism services, these massive fraud schemes
form a web that is stolen now literally billions of
dollars in taxpayer money. Each case we bring exposed another
(15:58):
strand of the network. Tax dollars are going to terrace
in Somalia because of the Somali community that is now
going after your tax dollars and setting up organizations to
steal from you. The feeding our future, HSS and autism
services cases are far from only.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Examples, they said.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
At least twenty eight fraud scandals of surface since Governor
Waltz was elected governor nineteen. Most of the large scale
fraud rings, according to two former FBI officials who spoke
to the City Journal have been perpetrated by members of
the Somali community. So let me just end by saying this,
apparently this is not the end of the story, but
the beginning of the story. The amount of corruption, fraud,
(16:42):
abuse is massive, and none of this would have been
exposed if it wasn't for Donald Trump and Conservative members
being put into positions of powers to find and expose
this type of blatant fraud that was in front of
us the entire time.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here tomorrow
Do you still plan to deploy the National Guards dark
Bat if they need it right now?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Other places need it more, But if they knew we
had a very good meeting, yes, and then we talked
about that.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
But if they need it, I would do it.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good Monday morning. It's a forty seven morning I've made.
It's so nice to have you with us, and we've
got a very big story for you that you need
to share wherever you can. Your tax dollars going directly
to terrorist organizations in Somalia? How is it happening through fraud,
waste and abuse in our government? And we have all
(00:37):
the details for you. But first I want to tell
you about an amazing opportunity right now that I'm involved
in and I cannot wait for you to take advantage
of it. I want you to take some incredible courses
at Hillsdale College for free. You may not know this,
but Hillsdale College has been influencing conservatives like myself for decade.
(01:00):
They had a huge impact on Charlie Kirk's life, and
even as memorial service they talked about how Charlie took
class after class after class at Hillsdale College. Hillsdale College
is now offering for you, the listeners of this show,
more than forty free I want to say that again,
free online courses. That's right, more than forty free online courses.
(01:24):
You can learn about the works of C. S. Lewis,
the stories in the Book of Genesis, the meaning of
the US Constitution, the rise and fall of the Roman Republic,
or the history of the ancient Christian Church, all with
Hillsdale College's free online courses. Right now, I'm personally taking
The Constitution one oh one. In this course, you're going
(01:47):
to exploit the design and the purpose of the Constitution,
the challenges it faced during the Civil War, and how
it has been undermined for more than a century by
radical progressives and liberals. This twelve electure course is self pace.
It's another reason why I love it. So start whenever
and wherever in our country. We need more Americans like
(02:09):
you and I than understand the Constitution and can defend
the freedom of the American people against the Left, and
they're increasing encroachments on our God given rights. So start
your classes today for free. Start your free Constitution one
oh one course, right Now how do you do it?
Go to Hillsdale dot edu slash Morning Update to enroll
(02:34):
and it's no cost.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
It's easy to get started.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You got to use a special website Hillsdale dot edu
slash Morning Update. Enroll for free Hillsdale dot edu slash
Morning Update. It's the forty seven Morning Update and it
starts right now.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Story number one.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I want to take you back to election day and
I want you to remember what Donald Trump said on
election day, if you vote for him, going to get
rid of waste, fraud and abuse within our government. There
was something that was created called doge and then it
inspired conservatives around the country in different states to actually
start looking at waste fraud and abuse in their state budgets.
(03:13):
And what we're finding now is incredible amounts of waste
fraud abuse, not just in local governments but statewide and
the federal government obviously. Well, now we're finding out where
some of that money was actually going. This is a
headline that should concern every American. The largest funder of
Al Shabab, a terrorist organization, is now the Minnesota taxpayer.
(03:36):
Minnesota is drowning in fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have
been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Waltz Alone.
Democratic state officials overseeing one of the most generous welfare
regimes in the country have been asleep at the wheel
or knew it was happening all along and sanctioned it.
And the media, duty bound by progressives right, have refused
(03:59):
to connect the dots or report on it. And that's
why we're telling you about it right now. In many cases,
the fraud has allegedly been perpetrated by members of Minnesota's
sizable Somali community. Federal counter terrorism sources are now confirming
that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent
back directly to Somalia, where they are ultimately landing in
(04:23):
the hands of a terear group, Al Sabab. As one
confidential source put it, the largest funder of Al Chabab
is the Minnesota taxpayer. The City Journal says their investigation
shows what happens when a tribal mindset meets a bleeding
heart bureaucracy, when imported clan loyalties collide with a political
(04:43):
class that's too timid to offend, and when accusations of
racism are cynically deployed to shield criminal behavior, The predictable
resort is graft, with taxpayers left to foot the literal bill.
If you were to design welfare program to facilitate fraud,
it would probably look like Minnesota's Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services Program.
(05:09):
The HSS program, the first of its kind in the country,
was launched with what they described as a noble goal
to help seniors, to help addicts, to help the disabled,
and to help the mentally ill secure housing right who
could possibly be against that? It was designed with quote
low barriers, as they described it, to intrigue and minimal
(05:33):
requirements for reimbursements. Nonetheless, before the program went live in
twenty twenty, so not that long ago, officials pegged its
annual estimated price tag at just two point six million, Right,
because now, just two point six million is nothing. Well,
guess what happened. Costs quickly spiraled out of control. A
(05:53):
program that they said was only going to cost two
point six million paid out more than twenty one million
dollars claims in the following years.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Guess what happened.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
The annual cost shot up to forty two million, Then
they shot up again to seventy four million, then they
shot up again to one hundred and four million. Now,
how does something in twenty twenty go from two point
six million to four years later going to one hundred
and four million. It was all done by design to
launder money. During the first six months of twenty twenty five,
(06:24):
for example, payouts have already hit sixty one million dollars.
On August the first, Minnesota's Department of Human Services moved
to scrap the entire HSS program, noting that payments to
seventy seven housing stabilization providers have been terminated this year
(06:46):
due to credible allegations of fraud. Joe Thompson, then the
acting US Attorney for the District of Minnesota, went even further,
stating that the vast majority of the HSS program was
straight up fraudile. Now they knew that this was happening
and Democrats didn't care, or maybe it was actually designed
(07:06):
to happen the way that I'm describing it right now.
On September the eighteenth, Thompson announced criminal indictments of HSS
fraud against multiple individuals, six of whom, according to the
US Attorney's Office spokesperson, are members of Minnesota's Somali community.
Thompson made clear that this is just the first round
(07:29):
of charges for HHS fraud that his office will be prosecuting, saying, quote,
most of these cases, unlike a lot of medicare fraud
and medicaid fraud cases nationally, aren't just over billing, Thompson
said at the press conference announcing these indictments, saying, quote,
these are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to
(07:50):
defraud the system, and that's unique in the extent of
which we have here in Minnesota. Thompson said many firms
enrolled in the program operated out of lapidated storefronts or
run down office buildings. The perpetrators often targeted people recently
released from rehab, signing them up for Medicaid services they
(08:10):
had no intention of ever providing. He noted that many
owners of the companies encouraged and engaged in HSS fraud
had other companies through which they build other Medicaid programs,
such as the EIDBI Autism Program, the Adult Rehabilitated Mental
Health Services Program, the Integrated Community Support Program, the Community
(08:32):
Access for Disability Inclusion, all of these programs which had
automatic yesses because of Medicaid waiver services. What we see
our schemes tracked upon, schemes draining resources meant for those
in need. It feels never ending. Thompson said, I have
spent my entire career as a fraud prosecutor. In the
(08:52):
depth of the fraud Minnesota truly takes my breath away,
he said at the press conference on September the eighteenth,
the same day that the JHS fraud charges were announced,
The US Attorney's Office also reported that a man who
had become the fifty sixth defendant to plead guilty in
the two hundred and fifty million dollar Feed our Future
fraud scheme as well. That was founded in twenty sixteen.
(09:15):
Feeding Our Future was a quote small Minnesota nonprofit that
sponsored daycares and after school programs to enroll in the
federal child nutrition program. Guess what happened the organization that
organizations that Feeding Our Future sponsored were primarily owned and
operated by members of yet again, Minnesota's Somali community. According
(09:39):
to two former state officials with connections to law enforcement,
in twenty nineteen, Feeding Our Future received three point four
million in federal funding dispersed by the state and the
months after the COVID nineteen pandemic began, the nonprofit rapidly
increased its number of sponsored sites. Using fake meal counts,
doctor to tenance rec and fabricated invoices. The perpetrators of
(10:03):
fraud ring claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day,
seven days a week to underprivileged children, of course, in
the name of COVID. In twenty twenty one, Feeding Our
Future received nearly two hundred million dollars in funding, and
no one decided to just like go and find out, like, hey,
are they actually feeding people. This is a group that
was founded in twenty sixteen. It was a small Minnesota
(10:23):
nonprofit sponsored these daycares after school programs enrolled in the
federal child Nutrition program, and then ballooned to two hundred
million dollars in funding in twenty twenty one, and no
one decided to go check and see what's really going on.
So here's what you really need to know. In reality,
the money was being used to fund lavish lifestyles, purchase
luxury vehicles, and by real estate in the United States,
(10:45):
not just the United States, also in Turkey and in Kenya.
In twenty twenty, Minnesota officials raised concerns about the nonprofit's
rapid expansion. In response, the group filed ay lawsuit alleging
racial discrimination related to outstanding applicants applications and noting that
feeding our future caters to foreign nationals.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So, how dare you question us? You're racists? Right? Liberalism?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
One oh one playbook there quote, that's the standard operating
playbook for the cohort when in doubt, claim racism, claim bias.
That's what a former Minnesota State center and a nonprofit leader,
David Gaither said, Even if the facts don't point to that,
it allows for many folks in the middle or on
the left center to stay silent. Gaither believes the mainstream media,
(11:31):
alongside Minnesota's Democratic establishment, have long turned a blind eye
to fraud within the Somali community, that in turn allowed
the problem to metastasize, saying, the media does not want
to put a light on this, and if you're a politician,
it's a significant disadvantage to you to alienate the Somali community.
If you don't win the Somali community, you don't win
in Minneapolis. And if you don't win Minneapolis, you can't
(11:52):
win the state. End of story. Now, the fraudsters have
leveraged their growing political influence to cultivate close ties with
Minnesota's elected officials. Several individuals involved in the Feeding Our
Future scheme donated to or appeared publicly with the Lam Mohmer,
the Somali born congresswoman from Minneapolis. Omar's deputy district director
(12:14):
Ali s advocated, I'm behalf of Feeding Our Future. Omar Fanna,
a former state senator who recently ran for Minneapolis mayor,
lobbied the governor Waltz in support of the program, and
one of the accused, a person Abd Nor Salam, served
as a senior aide to Minneapolis's Mayor, Jacob Fray. Just
(12:34):
days later, on September the twenty fourth, the US Attorney
Joseph Thompson announced his office office's first indictment and yet
another fraud case. This time, the scheme involved federally funded
autism services for children. The accused of a woman named
Asha Farham Hassan, a member of Minnesota's Somali community, yet
(12:55):
again who has been charged in the Feeding Our Future scam.
She's alleged to have played a role in a fourteen
million dollar fraud scheme perpetrated against Minnesota's Early Initiative Development
and Behavioral Intervention program. Hassan and her co conspirators approached
parents in the Somali community and recruited their children into
(13:15):
autism therapy services. It didn't matter, by the way prosecutor suggested,
if a child did not have an autism diagnosis, Hassan
would facilitate a fraudulent one. Bam and your taxpayers, yet
again being abused. In a press release announcing the indictment,
the US Attorney's Office made clear that the alleged autism
fraud scheme extended to a wide network of people. To
(13:38):
drive up enrollment, Hassan and her partners paid monthly cash
kickback payments to the parents of children who enrolled. The
release reads. These kickback payments ranged from three hundred to
fifteen hundred per month per child. The amount of these
payments was contingent on the services DHS authorized a child
to receive. The higher the authorization amount, the higher the kickbat.
(14:00):
Often parents threatened to leave and take their shown to
other autism centers.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
If they did not get paid higher kickbacks.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Much like the HSS program, autism claims to medicate in
Minnesota have skyrocketed in recent years. Now, if you want
to look at corruption and the Democratic Party, listen to this.
It went from three million in claims in twenty eighteen
to fifty four million in twenty nineteen. That should have
been the first red flag, but Democrats didn't care. Then
(14:30):
it went to seventy seven million in twenty twenty, and
if that doesn't scare you, then it went from seventy
seven to one hundred and eighty three million in claims
in twenty twenty one. If that doesn't scare you, it
then went to two hundred and seventy five million in
twenty twenty two, and then went because no one was
(14:50):
checking the books, to three hundred and ninety nine million
in twenty twenty three. So again this program and your
federal tax dollars were going into it to pay for
these claims of medicaid. In Minnesota, three million in claims
for autism in twenty eighteen went to three hundred and
ninety nine million in twenty twenty three. Meanwhile, the number
(15:11):
of autism providers in the state also spiked from forty
one to three hundred and twenty eight over the same period,
with many in the Somali community establishing their own autism
treatment centers, citing the need for culturally appropriate programming. By
the time the fraud scheme was exposed, one in sixteen
Somali four year olds in the state had reportedly been
diagnosed with autism, a rate more than triple the state average. Again,
(15:36):
if you were looking for fraud, it was right in
front of you. This is not an isolated scheme. Thompson,
the US attorney, said in the press release that no
one's covering this week. From freeding our future, to housing
stabilisition services to now autism services, these massive fraud schemes
form a web that is stolen now literally billions of
dollars in taxpayer money. Each case we bring exposed another
(15:58):
strand of the network. Tax dollars are going to terrace
in Somalia because of the Somali community that is now
going after your tax dollars and setting up organizations to
steal from you. The feeding our future, HSS and autism
services cases are far from only.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Examples, they said.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
At least twenty eight fraud scandals of surface since Governor
Waltz was elected governor nineteen. Most of the large scale
fraud rings, according to two former FBI officials who spoke
to the City Journal have been perpetrated by members of
the Somali community. So let me just end by saying this,
apparently this is not the end of the story, but
the beginning of the story. The amount of corruption, fraud,
(16:42):
abuse is massive, and none of this would have been
exposed if it wasn't for Donald Trump and Conservative members
being put into positions of powers to find and expose
this type of blatant fraud that was in front of
us the entire time.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here tomorrow
Host
Ben Ferguson
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