WASHINGTON, D.C. (KEYC) – A new congressional report accuses Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison of ignoring widespread fraud in Minnesota’s federally funded social service programs for years — allowing billions of taxpayer dollars to flow to fraudulent actors.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released the report Monday, titled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Explosion.” The committee says Minnesota officials were aware of credible and systemic fraud as early as 2019 but repeatedly failed to act, despite having the authority to suspend payments and ban fraudulent providers without direction from courts or law enforcement.
According to the report, the failures allowed an estimated $300 million in federal child nutrition funds to be lost. Investigators also say up to $9 billion in Medicaid-related…
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.