On Wednesday, House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R‑Ky.) sent letters to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison as part of a probe into alleged “widespread fraud” in the state’s social‑services system.
“The Committee has serious concerns about how you as the Governor, and the Democrat‑controlled administration, allowed millions of dollars to be stolen,” Comer wrote to Walz in one of the Dec. 3 letters.
“The Committee therefore requests documents and communications showing what your administration knew about this fraud and whether you took action to limit or halt the investigation into this widespread fraud.”
In a letter sent to Ellison on the same day, Comer claimed the attorney general had been “caught on tape pledging to help Feeding Our Future fraudsters in a conversation that also included discussion of campaign donations from Somali community leaders to secure your donor base and, only days later you and your son accepted contributions to your campaigns from the individuals in this meeting.”
“Based on these reports, the Committee is concerned that you were negligent in handling taxpayer dollars that were ultimately stolen and had systems in place that allowed the funds to be funneled to terrorist networks responsible for killing Americans,” he added.
“Whistleblowers have indicated that DHS employees are destroying evidence. The Committee expects that you will take all steps to preserve evidence during this investigation.”
By Dec. 17, Comer had requested records covering the period from Jan. 1, 2019 to the present from Minnesota’s Department of Human Services, the governor and lieutenant governor’s offices. The records are related to nearly $1 billion that may have been fraudulently routed from taxpayers’ pockets through state agencies to food‑aid nonprofits during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
Feeding Our Future is alleged to have scammed taxpayers out of more than $240 million between 2020 and 2022, before an FBI raid on its Minneapolis office and subsequent prosecutions of dozens of its employees.
The nonprofit’s workers, many with ties to the Somali community in the Twin Cities, reportedly turned taxpayer money into luxury real‑estate purchases, high‑end cars and other extravagances.
Other organizations seized on by the Oversight Committee include Safari Restaurant, Empire Cuisine and Market LLC; S & S Catering Inc.; Haji’s Kitchen LLC; Community Enhancement Services Inc.; and Brava Restaurant & Café LLC. The committee also flagged several entities linked to Minnesota’s Housing Stability Services Program—such as Brilliant Minds Services LLC, Faladcare Inc., Leo Human Services LLC and Liberty Plus LLC—as well as information on the EIDBI Autism Program, specifically Smart Therapy LLC and Asha Farhan Hassan.
These programs are alleged to have taken more than $104 million from taxpayers through false claims of homelessness, while autism‑treatment services reportedly diverted $14 million in state funds.
Comer’s letter covers a more-than‑ten‑year span of records from the Minnesota Department of Commerce, focusing on instances of fraud that could implicate the state’s handling of public funds.
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