The Department of Justice and several other top federal officials were in Minnesota on Thursday to announce new criminal charges against 15 people accused of defrauding government services.
Those 15 people are accused of misusing $90 million in taxpayer money, the DOJ says.
RELATED: DOJ charges 15 defendants accused of collectively defrauding $90 million
During the press conference, Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald and others blamed Minnesota for failing to cooperate and help them combat fraud.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office denied that assertion, saying the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit regularly works alongside federal law enforcement in fraud investigations and has for many years.
“The federal law enforcement agents based in Minnesota who work directly with Attorney General Ellison’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit have never once expressed dissatisfaction…
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.