Minnesota taxpayer dollars funneled to Al-Shabaab terror group, report alleges

A new study determined 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 venture Feeding Our Future and other organizations in a bombshell assessment Thorpe and Rufo noted that in a multitude of cases members of Minnesota's Somali region were perpetrators of fraud They added that federal counterterrorism sources authenticated 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 of households in Somalia get remittances from abroad Thorpe and Rufo state that in the Somali diaspora sent billion to the country which was higher than the Somali government's budget that same year FOOD-STAMP FRAUD NUMBERS EXPOSE WHICH STATES ARE DRAINING THE MOST OF TAXPAYER DOLLARSThorpe 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 public sent millions of dollars through a grid 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 years on a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force notified Thorpe and Rufo that the Somalis ran a complex money configuration 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 advised Thorpe and Rufo A confidential source advised 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 particular way a former official who worked on the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force advised Thorpe and Rufo The HSS venture was launched with the goal of helping those in need but it turned into a fraud scheme The activity was initially estimated to cost million but in its first year it paid out more than million in declares according to Thorpe and Rufo The costs only grew from there with the initiative paying out million in suggests in the first six months of On Aug Minnesota's Department of Human Services ended the campaign after finding that payment to housing-stabilization providers were terminated over credible assertions of fraud Thorpe and Rufo announced Just over a month after the campaign was shut down then-acting U S Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson informed 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 described Thorpe and Rufo that all six are members of Minnesota s Somali public SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS AFTER FAR-LEFT MAYOR GIVES WIN SPEECH IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE 'HUMILIATING'Thompson revealed 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 in recent times disclosed from rehab and signed them up for services that they allegedly did not plan to provide On Sept the same day the HSS indictments were reported the U S Attorney's Office reported a th 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 th defendant on Nov Feeding Our Future received million in federal funds disbursed by the state in but as COVID- hit the organization rapidly expanded its number of sponsored sites according to Thorpe and Rufo who added that in Feeding Our Future received almost 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 analysis 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 authorities became suspicious of the nonprofit in 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 'SQUAD' DEM DISHES OUT CAMPAIGN CASH TO ANTI-ISRAEL NONPROFIT TIED TO 'TERRORIST UNIVERSITY'A scarce days later Thompson broadcasted an indictment in another fraud scheme this time involving autism services for children Asha Farhan Hassan a member of Minnesota s Somali group who has also been charged in the Feeding Our Future scam is accused of playing a role in a million scheme against Minnesota s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention activity According to Thorpe and Rufo Hassan and her co-conspirators allegedly recruited children from the Somali public 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 commented that Hassan would use monthly cash kickbacks to drive enrollment and that payments ranged from - 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 scenario we bring exposes another strand of this configuration The challenge is immense but our work continues Thompson stated in a report Minnesota State Rep Kristin Robbins who is running to unseat Minnesota Gov Tim Walz shared Thorpe and Rufo's analysis 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 forthwith respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment