Episode 920: Minnesota’s Billion-Dollar Fraud Scheme

Newt's World

Gingrich 360

News, Politics

4.7 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Newt talks with Ryan Thorpe, investigative reporter for the City Journal about his article, co-authored with Christopher Rufo, “The Largest Funder of Al-Shabaab Is the Minnesota Taxpayer.” Thorpe and Rufo report on a billion-dollar fraud scheme in Minnesota, primarily involving social service programs. The fraud was orchestrated by a nonprofit, Feeding Our Future, which falsely billed the state for feeding children during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the funds were misappropriated for luxury purchases and real estate. Additionally, the Housing Stabilization Services and autism therapy programs were exploited, with fraudulent claims and kickbacks, leading to a near billion-dollar theft. Thorpe highlights the concentration of fraud within the Somali community and the lack of media coverage and political will to address the issue. The fraud has national security implications, as some funds were allegedly funneled to Al-Shabaab through informal money transfer networks. Their discussion underscores the systemic issues in government oversight and the need for policy changes to prevent such fraud. They also discuss the political influence of the Somali community in Minnesota and the challenges faced by whistleblowers within the state government.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.6	Guaranteed Human.
0:08.7	On this episode of NUTS World, we're going to discuss the details of the billion-dollar fraud scheme in the state of Minnesota and how it all happened.
0:18.5	How could one state lose this much money
0:20.9	through social service programs
0:22.9	while going unchecked?
0:25.0	My guest today has written about Minnesota's fraud
0:27.8	for the Manhattan Institute's City Journal
0:29.9	in an article co-authored with Christopher Rufo,
0:33.2	quote,
0:33.4	The largest funder of al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer, which is available now at city-dash-journal.org.
0:42.1	I'm really pleased to welcome my guest, Ryan Thorpe.
0:45.7	He is an investigative reporter at the Manhattan Institute.
0:48.8	Thank you. Ryan, welcome and thank you for joining me on Newtsworld.
1:06.1	It's great to be here.
1:08.1	And then let me say to everybody that I think the paper that Ryan and Chris wrote
1:12.5	is astonishing. And as you listen to this podcast, you'll understand what an extraordinary
1:19.0	story they've helped put together and how truly this is a wake-up call for the United States
1:25.6	at a lot of different levels. But let me give you a brief overview of the fraud scheme because, frankly, it's sufficiently
1:32.5	complicated.
1:33.5	I had to go back and reread various things several times to begin to realize the real depth of it.
1:39.4	The fraud scheme began with a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization called Feeding Our Future. Their goal was to
	...

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