MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (KTTC) – Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche will be in Minnesota Thursday to announce “significant law enforcement action” in regard to fraud in Minnesota.
A press conference is scheduled for Thursday at 11 a.m. with the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, and federal law enforcement officials.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy and Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz is also expected to be in attendance.
This comes as fraud in Minnesota has been under a microscope. In February, President Donald Trump launched a “war on fraud” led by Vice President J.D. Vance. The Trump administration has also halted Medicaid funding to some Minnesota programs and frozen Medicare enrollments for several home health care agencies.
KTTC will stream this press conference in our KTTC News App.
Find stories like…
THE HASHFLARE “CLOUD MINING” PONZI SCHEME (GLOBAL/ESTONIA)
Date: February 13, 2025 (Guilty Pleas) Perpetrators: Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin
Case Description: This $577 million cryptocurrency fraud remains one of the largest digital asset scams in history, with major legal developments concluding in 2025. Potapenko and Turogin operated “Hashflare,” which they marketed as a massive cryptocurrency mining operation. Hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide purchased “mining contracts,” believing they were renting hash power to mine Bitcoin. In reality, the duo was running a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
They created fake customer dashboards that showed “real-time” mining profits, but the money being paid out was simply the capital of newer investors. They laundered the proceeds through shell companies to purchase luxury real estate and a fleet of high-end vehicles. After a massive international investigation involving the FBI and Estonian authorities, the pair agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. This case underscores the “Cyber-enabled Fraud” warning issued by the FATF in early 2026: as technology evolves, the scale of fraud moves from local millions to global billions in the blink of an eye.
Link to Original: ACFE – High Profile Fraud of 2025