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A new investigation found that Minnesota taxpayer dollars were going far beyond the North Star State’s borders and ending up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked terror group.
Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo of the Manhattan Institute uncovered a web of fraud involving Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, Feeding Our Future and other organizations in a bombshell report. Thorpe and Rufo noted that, in many cases, members of Minnesota’s Somali community were perpetrators of fraud. They added that federal counterterrorism sources confirmed that millions of dollars in stolen funds were sent back to Somalia, which is how Al-Shabaab got the cash.
Thorpe and Rufo sought to answer a bigger question when looking into the schemes: “Where did the money go?”
As it turned out, the Somali fraud rings sent money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia and, according to reports, approximately 40% of households in Somalia get remittances from abroad. Thorpe and Rufo state that in 2023, the Somali diaspora sent $1.7 billion to the country, which was higher than the Somali government’s budget that same year.
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Women walk along a tree-lined street in Minneapolis’ Cedar–Riverside neighborhood, home to one of the largest Somali communities in the U.S. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Thorpe and Rufo discovered that the funds were being funneled to Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked terror organization. Multiple law enforcement sources informed the duo that Minnesota’s Somali community sent millions of dollars through a network of money traders known as “hawalas” that wound up in the hands of the terror group.
Glenn Kerns, a retired Seattle Police Department detective who spent 14 years on a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, told Thorpe and Rufo that the Somalis ran a complex money network and were routing cash on commercial flights from the Seattle airport to the hawala networks in Somalia.
“We had sources going into the hawalas to send money. I went down to [Minnesota] and pulled all of their records and, well s—, all these Somalis sending out money are on DHS benefits,” Kerns told Thorpe and Rufo.
A confidential source told Thorpe and Rufo that “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
“Every scrap of economic activity, in the Twin Cities, in America, throughout Western Europe, anywhere Somalis are concentrated, every cent that is sent back to Somalia benefits Al-Shabaab in some way,” a former official who worked on the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force told Thorpe and Rufo.
The HSS program was launched with the goal of helping those in need, but it turned into a fraud scheme. The program was initially estimated to cost $2.6 million, but in its first year it paid out more than $21 million in claims, according to Thorpe and Rufo. The costs only grew from there with the program paying out $61 million in claims in the first six months of 2025.
On Aug. 1, Minnesota’s Department of Human Services ended the program after finding that payment to 77 housing-stabilization providers were terminated over “credible allegations of fraud,” Thorpe and Rufo reported.
Just over a month after the program was shut down, then-acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson announced criminal indictments for HSS fraud against Moktar Hassan Aden, Mustafa Dayib Ali, Khalid Ahmed Dayib, Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, Christopher Adesoji Falade, Emmanuel Oluwademilade Falade, Asad Ahmed Adow and Anwar Ahmed Adow. A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson told Thorpe and Rufo that all six are members of Minnesota’s Somali community.
Somali national army soldiers escort members of the press to hideouts used by the terrorist group al-Shabaab in the Sabiid-Aanole areas, Somalia on June 23, 2025. (Abuukar Mohamed Muhidin/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Thompson said at a September news conference that the issue went beyond overbilling, rather they often involve “purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system.” Furthermore, those perpetrating the scam often targeted vulnerable individuals, such as people recently released from rehab, and signed them up for services that they allegedly did not plan to provide.
On Sept. 18, the same day the HSS indictments were announced, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced a 56th defendant pleaded guilty in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. The number of defendants has only grown, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office announcing charges against a 77th defendant on Nov. 20.
Feeding Our Future received $3.4 million in federal funds disbursed by the state in 2019, but as COVID-19 hit, the organization rapidly expanded its number of sponsored sites, according to Thorpe and Rufo, who added that in 2021, Feeding Our Future received almost $200 million in funding.
“Using fake meal counts, doctored attendance records, and fabricated invoices, the perpetrators of the fraud ring claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day, seven days a week, to underprivileged children,” Thorpe and Rufo wrote in their report.
The funds were not going to the needy; rather, the money was being used to pay for luxury vehicles and real estate in the U.S., Turkey and Kenya, among other things.
When officials became suspicious of the nonprofit in 2020, Feeding Our Futures filed a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination related to outstanding site applications. In the suit, the nonprofit notes that it “caters to” foreign nationals, according to Thorpe and Rufo. They also note that “several individuals” involved in the scheme donated to Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and that Omar’s deputy district director advocated for the group.
A street sign for “Somali St” is pictured with Riverside Plaza in the background in Minneapolis’ Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
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A few days later, Thompson announced an indictment in another fraud scheme, this time involving autism services for children.
Asha Farhan Hassan, a member of Minnesota’s Somali community, who has also been charged in the Feeding Our Future scam, is accused of playing a role in a $14 million scheme against Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program. According to Thorpe and Rufo, Hassan and her co-conspirators allegedly recruited children from the Somali community for autism therapy services. Prosecutors suggested that Hassan would facilitate fraudulent autism diagnoses for children who did not have one.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Hassan would use monthly cash kickbacks to drive enrollment and that payments ranged from $300 to $1,500 per month, per child.
“To be clear, this is not an isolated scheme. From Feeding Our Future to Housing Stabilization Services and now Autism Services, these massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money. Each case we bring exposes another strand of this network. The challenge is immense, but our work continues,” Thompson said in a statement.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks to reporters after a meeting with then-President Joe Biden at the White House on July 3, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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Minnesota State Rep. Kristin Robbins, who is running to unseat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, shared Thorpe and Rufo’s report on X, writing, “Billions of our tax dollars have been stolen under [Tim Walz]. We need help from [Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel] and our partners at [the U.S. Attorney’s Office] to find out if our state dollars are funding terrorism.”
Walz’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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