Democrat vice-presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) lax oversight of a federal food aid program led to dozens of Somali migrants stealing $250 million meant for children in need.
In September 2022, the Justice Department charged 47 Somali immigrants in Minnesota with stealing $250 million from a coronavirus relief program meant to feed needy children. Only $50 million has been recovered as of June.
Breitbart News reported in June:
The scheme involved the 47 defendants, whom prosecutors say created an umbrella group called “Feeding Our Future” and then created numerous sub-groups that were advertised as bringing food to needy children during the pandemic. The accused allegedly used the fraudulent groups to file for relief funding at mosques across Minnesota. Once they obtained the funding, they reported feeding thousands of children every day and supplied rosters of non-existent children to the government to show their outreach.
One such fraudulent feeding center was so brazen that it just copied all the names from a website called listofrandomnames.com and sent that list to federal authorities to claim that it fed the people on the list, prosecutors said.
An audit from the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor found that Walz’s Department of Education “failed to act on warning signs known to the department prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and prior to the start of the alleged fraud, did not effectively exercise its authority to hold Feeding Our Future accountable to program requirements, and was ill-prepared to respond to the issues it encountered with Feeding Our Future.”
WATCH — CNBC’s Ross Sorkin: Walz VP Pick Shows Harris Will Govern from “Progressive Left Standpoint”:
The Associated Press (AP) reported:
Seventy people have been charged in federal court for their alleged roles in a scheme prosecutors say centered on a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future. Five of the first seven defendants to stand trial were convicted Friday. The trial gained widespread attention after someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash the night before the case went to the jury. Authorities are still trying to determine the source of that money.
North Star State Republican legislative leaders in June said the buck stops with Walz.
“This is stunning. The Department of Education and Gov. Walz have repeatedly tried to tell the public that they did all they could … but this report clearly demonstrates that was a false narrative,” Minnesota Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R) said.
Walz has claimed that his hands were tied and had and to resume payments despite concerns due to a 2021 court order; however, the judge has disputed that charge.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.