Dem. Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images, MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images and Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Teirab called this tactic both deliberate and cynical. In one trial, a juror was even approached with a $120,000 cash bribe, allegedly accompanied by messaging intended to frame the investigation as racially motivated. The goal wasn’t just to escape prosecution, it was to taint the system itself by threatening anyone pursuing the truth with the specter of racial bias.
"It provided cover," Teirab told Fox News Digital. "Fraudsters knew the issue of race and racism was something they could use as a cudgel…It’s disrespectful to use those terms when they’re not appropriate, especially in a case where fraud clearly happened."
Minnesota Republican State Senator Mark Koran echoed Teirab’s concerns, emphasizing that investigators followed the evidence, not demographics. Fraud prosecutions disproportionately affected one community simply because that’s where significant fraud was uncovered, not because investigators targeted anyone based on race.
"The average Minnesotan, average legislator, doesn't care who's committing the fraud," Koran said. "All right, the evidence will lead you either to or from the perpetrator. And so, if the evidence leads to the perpetrator, we need to prosecute all of them."
Koran noted that public officials and agencies pursuing fraud were routinely branded racist for doing so. Some perpetrators were so "emboldened," he said, that they sued the state to force the continuation of payments, even after red flags signaled massive irregularities.
The scale, Koran argued, dwarfs what many Minnesotans understand. While federal authorities may ultimately prosecute around $2 billion in fraud, he suggested that the true annual losses across state programs could reach much higher when factoring in both blatant fraud and poor service delivery.
Meanwhile, many families participated in related schemes by receiving kickbacks from fraudulent autism service providers, further complicating enforcement. Investigators simply lack the resources to chase every case, creating an environment where fraud becomes a low-risk, high-reward enterprise.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sits for an interview with Star Tribune journalists in his office at the State Capitol in St. Paul on Dec. 12, 2024. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Grage pointed to an early pivotal moment: Minnesota’s Department of Education detected signs of fraud and briefly halted payments. Immediately, Minneapolis political figures Omar Fateh and Jamal Osman pushed back, claiming the stop was racially motivated. They even took the state to court, though their case was eventually thrown out.
Yet the damage was done. Payments resumed, and crucially, Governor Tim Walz declined to use his subpoena power to obtain Feeding Our Future's bank records, despite having the authority to do so. That inaction, Grage noted, further delayed the exposure of the fraud.
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The sun shines on the Minnesota State Capitol. (Steve Karnowski/Associated Press)
Glahn told Fox News Digital that in addition to fear of the "racist" label, politicians in Minnesota understand that it is difficult to win elections without the support of the Somali community.
"The Somali community is very concentrated in Minnesota and very concentrated in Ilhan Omar's congressional district, and a few other pockets where the Somali vote swings elections, and at the state level, they're big enough that we've had some super close elections at the state level, and the Somali vote is very monolithic, votes Democrat," Glahn explained. "They provided the difference in statewide elections, and then in local elections, where it's all Democrats, they're providing the difference in the primary. So if you're running in a primary against other Democrats, if you don't have the Somali vote on your side, you're not making it to the general election."
The result of the fear to fully investigate the fraud was predictable: fraudsters exploited that hesitation, taxpayers lost billions, and the vulnerable communities the programs were meant to serve suffered most.
As the state continues to grapple with accountability and reform, one lesson stands out starkly. According to those who spoke to Fox News Digital, combating fraud requires courage, not only to follow the evidence wherever it leads, but to withstand the inevitable attempts to distort legitimate scrutiny into something it is not.
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/how-fears-of-being-labeled-racist-helped-provide-cover-for-the-exploding-minnesota-fraud-scandal