Report: Minnesota welfare funds exploited by Somali terror groups

Investigators say millions in taxpayer dollars were funneled to a terror group in east Africa.

By World Israel News Staff

Taxpayer-funded programs in Minnesota are being exploited to raise and funnel money to the Somalia-based Al-Shabab terror group, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda, according to a bombshell new report from the New York Post.

The report revealed that Minnesota — home to the largest number of Somali migrants in the United States — has seen widespread fraud in its Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program. According to figures reviewed by the Post, the state has paid out a staggering $302 million in HSS claims since 2021.

In August, Minnesota’s Department of Human Services announced that it would phase out the HSS program due to “credible allegations of fraud” involving at least 77 entities that claimed to provide housing under the program’s auspices.

Then–acting Minnesota U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said at the time that the “vast majority” of companies seeking reimbursement through HSS were fraudulent. Federal authorities filed criminal charges against six Somali-Americans for their alleged involvement in defrauding the program.

“These are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system, and that’s unique in the extent to which we have that here in Minnesota,” Thompson said.

But investigators say the fraud goes far beyond stealing state money. Millions of dollars siphoned from the program have reportedly been sent to the Al-Shabab terror group in Somalia.

“The largest funder of Al-Shabab is the Minnesota taxpayer,” a source speaking anonymously told the Post.

Law enforcement sources told the Post that money defrauded from HSS — as well as from other state-funded programs, including those intended to support autistic children and provide food to families in need — has been funneled back to Somalia.

A source who served as an informant on the Somali community’s ties to extremist groups abroad told the Post that sympathy for Islamic extremism remains a significant risk factor in Minnesota.

Notably, out of 58 Americans who attempted to join ISIS over the past decade, more than half were Minnesota residents — the majority of them of Somali origin.