Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth makes fraud a focus of her campaign for governor just about every day. On Monday, she responded to an in-depth Minnesota Star Tribune story about the slow response of Gov. Tim Walz’s administration to hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud uncovered so far, with wanting the dismissal of two state employees.
Demuth called for the firing of two state agency leaders, including Assistant Education Commissioner Daron Korte and Department of Children, Youth and Families Deputy Commissioner Leah Montgomery. Demuth says Korte didn’t do enough to stop the Feeding Our Future fraud cases and wants Montgomery gone for saying state government fraud is just a “Republican talking point.”
“They should have already been held accountable for this,” Demuth said at a news conference at the state capitol on Monday.
“Governor Walz again has not fired a single person….
This category refers to crimes committed by employees or insiders against their own organizations. It is often the most damaging because the perpetrator has authorized access to systems.
- Asset Misappropriation: The most common form, involving the theft of company resources. This ranges from simple “skimming” (taking cash before it’s recorded) to complex schemes involving the theft of inventory or intellectual property.
- Payroll Fraud: Employees may create “ghost employees” on the system, falsify their own timesheets to claim unworked overtime, or divert salary payments to their own accounts.
- Financial Statement Fraud: Management deliberately misrepresents the company’s financial health by inflating revenue or hiding liabilities to attract investors or meet performance bonuses.