November 29, 2025 – NYT: Tim Walz oversaw ‘staggering’ levels of Social Services fraud — Minnesota DHS estimates $8 billion stolen since 2017

In Email/Dossier/Govt Corruption Investigations, Featured Timeline Entries by Katie Weddington

Tim Walz (Credit: Gage Skidmore)

The left-wing New York Times has admitted that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz oversaw a “staggering” level of fraud across the state’s social services.

In a piece published on Saturday, the Times argued that Walz, who last year became one of the least successful vice-presidential nominees in living memory, had overseen a level of fraud “staggering in its scale and brazenness,” largely by the state’s Somali community.

Their report states:

Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never provided.

Federal prosecutors say that 59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money has been stolen in three plots they are investigating.

That is more than Minnesota spends annually to run its Department of Corrections. Minnesota’s fraud scandal stood out even in the context of rampant theft during the pandemic, when Americans stole tens of billions through unemployment benefits, business loans and other forms of aid, according to federal auditors.

Outrage has swelled among Minnesotans, and fraud has turned into a potent political issue in a competitive campaign season. Gov. Tim Walz and fellow Democrats are being asked to explain how so much money was stolen on their watch, providing Republicans, who hope to take back the governor’s office in 2026, with a powerful line of attack.

However, Walz is unwilling to confront the issue over his fear of losing Somali voting base, who may seek to replace him with an even more radical candidate of their own, most likely in the style of Congesswoman Ilhan Omar.

(Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 11/30/2025) (Archive)

UPDATE 11/30/2025

As we uncover the layers of fraud, $8 Billion of fraud since 2017 is a low estimate. Fraud investigations may never end but we believe they’ll top $10 Billion by the time we’re done researching.

In the media, we’ve seen that much fraud has been perpetuated by groups of small providers. But we observe that large providers are committing fraud too, but in much more structured ways such as flexing contractual obligations, using DHS insiders to gain an edge in contract procurement, or billing to multiple sources.

We need to also consider fraud by DHS leaders. We are legally required to report fraud but our systems are broken and our leaders are failing at their jobs. It is fraud, waste, abuse when leaders are not competent for their positions, not doing their jobs and oppressing reports of fraud.

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We are now revising Minnesota DHS fraud predictions to exceed $6.5 billion from 2019 onward. This includes contracts/grants & Medicaid. If we use 2017 as a starting point since that’s when Shireen Gandhi started, predicted fraud in human services clearly exceeds $8 billion.

Despite numerous staff reports to the Office of Inspector General, no follow up was ever provided.

We are overwhelmed by the interest the nation has shown in the fraud occurring in Minnesota. Population wise, we are small but health and human services fraud in our state exceeds that of much larger states like California, New York, Texas & others.

While Tim Walz makes all manner of incorrect statements about Minnesota leading in one way or other, what we really lead in is failed governance. Tim Walz has turned Minnesota into a failed state with deteriorating infrastructure, education and economic metrics, and worst of all, we are failing our most vulnerable citizens by letting cripple state services.

For many years, we reached out to every source available to us to get attention on and help stop fraud. We were lucky to get the Office of the Legislative Auditor, Fraud Committee, certain news outlets and many fine politicians to help shed light on the matter.

Unfortunately, only one DFL member showed interest in fraud – John Hoffman. Contrary to popular belief, we aren’t a political group. But we’ve been continually disappointed in the response we got by the DFL, or lack there of. We hoped for partnership with all political parties but instead, the DFL discredited our reports and pleas. Is protecting your political party or clinging onto power really worth destroying your state?

Many thanks to those who’ve supported us over the years. It’s been an uphill battle that has been uncertain, isolating but one that we aren’t giving up on. We hope that Minnesota will be freed from fraud, good governance is restored and trust in government is rebuilt.

The next step now is to bring in external auditors and new leadership.

Tim Walz has failed Minnesota.