House Fraud Committee hears testimony about cash passing through MSP Airport
They’re called “international remittances,” money wired or personally carried to foreign countries by people who live in the United States but want to send money to their home country.
The chair of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee says the amount of money in cash passing through the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has risen dramatically over the past 25 years, from $70 million in 2000 to well over $300 million per year now.
“We are an outlier as a state in terms of the amount of cash leaving our airport,” says Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove. “And so that is why we are having this hearing to better understand what is going on not only at the airport but where these funds are coming from and are any of them tied to the fraud here in Minnesota.”
The chief of the…
PAYROLL & HR CONTROLS (PREVENTING “GHOST” SCHEMES)
Payroll fraud is often the hardest to detect because it “looks” like a normal business expense.
- Segregation of Duties (SoD): The person who adds new employees to the system must not be the same person who approves the monthly pay run.
- Mandatory Vacation Policy: Require all financial and HR staff to take 5–10 consecutive days of leave annually. Fraud often surfaces when the perpetrator isn’t there to “hide” the trail.
- Ghost Employee Audit: Perform a quarterly “Headcount Reconciliation” where managers must physically verify every name on their payroll list exists.
- Self-Pay Blocking: Ensure the payroll software has a hard-coded block preventing administrators from editing their own salary or bank details.