More than 480 Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) employees have come forward and accused Governor Tim Walz of ignoring their warnings about massive fraud in the state — and said the governor illegally retaliated against the whistleblowers who tried to stop it.
The Minnesota Department of Human Service Employees account, which says it represents hundreds of current staff members, came forward over the weekend and said that Walz is “100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota.”
The major whistleblower allegations come as federal prosecutors start to unravel one of the nation’s largest COVID-era fraud cases. The Justice Department announced last week charges against a 78th defendant in the massive Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, which prosecutors say involved more than $250 million in stolen funds from a federally-funded child nutrition program.
Much of the taxpayer money was funneled overseas by the Somali refugee community in Minnesota, and millions of American taxpayer dollars ended up in the hands of radical Islamic terrorists.
The DHS whistleblowers blamed Walz’ weakened oversight that could have stopped the massive fraud scheme, but instead ignored it because of fear of appearing non-woke.
In fact, the workers accused Walz-appointed agency leaders of actively covering up fraud reports.
“This is a cascade of systemic failures leading up to Tim Walz,” the group wrote. “Agency leaders appointed by Tim Walz willfully disregarded rules and laws to keep fraud reports quiet – even to the extent of threatening families of whistleblowers.”
The employees said the leaders that could have stopped the fraud were put into place by the Democratic administration as a result of corruption and nepotism.
“These same leaders are not qualified for their jobs, instead getting leadership jobs via Tim Walz’s friendship so state government were left floundering,” the group wrote.
“To date, no single agency leader has been held responsible for their role in fraud,” the group wrote.
The employees said the massive fraud scheme was able to flourish because state officials feared being labeled racist.
“Programs, especially in behavioral health and disability services were built without any guardrails against fraud, all in an attempt to extract more funding from legislature and the federal government,” the group wrote. “Leadership did not want to appear to discriminate against certain communities and were unwilling to take action such as stopping fraud, that would have an adverse impact on their image.”
Federal prosecutors say Feeding Our Future opened more than 250 sites throughout Minnesota that fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children per day. The organization went from receiving approximately $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021.
The program fed almost no children during its entire existence.
According to federal prosecutors, conspirators created dozens of shell companies and submitted false documentation, including fraudulent meal counts and fake attendance rosters. One restaurant that seats about 35 people claimed to have served 18,000-plus meals a day, according to David Gaither, a former Minnesota lawmaker.
The defendants used proceeds to purchase luxury vehicles, residential and commercial real estate, property in Kenya and Turkey, and to fund international travel. Only around $75 million of the stolen funds has been recovered as of early 2025.
The New York Times reported that over the past five years, several fraud schemes proliferated in parts of Minnesota’s Somali community. Most, though not all, of those charged in the Feeding Our Future case were members of Minnesota’s Somali American community.
Millions of these stolen dollars made their way to Somalia, with large portions going to fund al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-linked Islamic terror group.
Kayseh Magan, a Somali-American who worked as a fraud investigator for Minnesota’s Attorney General’s office, said fear of being labeled racist hampered investigations.
“There is a perception that forcefully tackling this issue might cause political backlash among the Somali community, which is a core voting bloc” for the Democratic Party, Magan said.
Whistleblowers said they weren’t allowed to fight the obvious fraud by Minnesota’s government, and appealed to federal authorities under the Biden administration for help but were ignored.
“We need all the help we can get as Tim Walz’s agency leaders have upped their brazen approach in covering up their knowledge of fraud,” the group wrote.
“Fundamentally, Tim Walz is dishonest, lacks ethics and integrity, has poor leadership abilities, and has never taken any accountability for his role in fraud,” the group wrote.
Walz is seeking a third term as governor.
Take a look at what the whistleblower group posted in its entirety –
Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports. Instead of partnership, we got the full weight of retaliation by Tim Walz, certain DFL members and an indifferent mainstream media. It’s scary, isolating and left us wondering who we can turn to.
In addition to retaliating against whistleblower, Tim Walz disempowered the Office of the Legislative Auditor, allowing agencies to disregard their audit findings and guidance. Media and politicians supporting Tim Walz or the DFL-agenda attacked whistleblowers who were trying to raise red flags on fraudulent activities.
This is a cascade of systemic failures leading up to Tim Walz. Agency leaders appointed by Tim Walz willfully disregarded rules and laws to keep fraud reports quiet – even to the extent of threatening families of whistleblowers. These same leaders are not qualified for their jobs, instead getting leadership jobs via Tim Walz’s friendship so state government were left floundering. DFL lawmakers refused to acknowledge fraud and deflected any serious conversation to stop fraud. Biased mainstream media such as WCCO and MPR showed absolutely no interest in covering fraud happening in our own state. Programs, especially in behavioral health and disability services were built without any guardrails against fraud, all in an attempt to extract more funding from legislature and the federal government.
As staff, we firsthand witnessed and observed fraud happening yet we were shutdown, reassigned and told to keep quiet. Sometimes more. Leadership did not want to appear to discriminate against certain communities and were unwilling to take action, such as stopping fraud, that would have an adverse impact on their image. To date, no single agency leader has been held responsible for their role in fraud whether it’s Shireen Gandhi, Jess Geil, Jodi Harpstead, Natasha Merz, Eric Grumdahl or others.
It is a structure created and maintained by Tim Walz who has created an environment of inter-related agencies and institutions including the media – that help foster fraud through retaliation and turning a blind eye in exchange for political gain in the form of high power agency leadership jobs or other perks.
Fundamentally, Tim Walz is dishonest, lacks ethics and integrity, has poor leadership abilities, and has never taken any accountability for his role in fraud. Instead, Tim Walz deflects by blaming national politics for his own failings and distracts the public with inveterate lying. These lies include his reference of a budget surplus under his tenure. Fact is, Minnesota never had a surplus, we had been given federal ARPA funds that were conflated as surplus money otherwise, we’d be in a deficit. And those ARPA funds, which were meant to be temporary funds were used to create more leadership positions for Tim Walz “buddies.”
As such, we can’t fight fraud in Minnesota alone hence why we’re appealing to the federal levels of government. We need all the help we can get as Tim Walz’s agency leaders have upped their brazen approach in covering up their knowledge of fraud.
We are grateful to numerous solid politicians (esp the Fraud Committee) and media outlets who are trying to halt fraud. We are also grateful to other whistleblowers who are bravely stepping up.
Thank You NY Times for bringing the plight of Minnesota to the national stage.