Minnesota’s $1 Billion Somali Welfare Fraud: John Kennedy Says “Jail Them All”

• Feeding Our Future: Nonprofit funneled $100M+ annually meant for feeding needy kids into luxury cars, yachts, travel, jewelry. No meals served.​​

• Housing Stabilization: Program ballooned to $104M by 2024. Providers pocketed funds claiming to shelter homeless with fake services.​

• Autism Fraud: Bribes of $400–$1,500 per child to fake diagnoses drove claims to $400M in 2023.​​

Senator John Kennedy has never been known for soft language, and his recent remarks on what he identified as massive welfare fraud in Minnesota show exactly why many voters trust him.

Kennedy called the scandal "clown world on steroids," expressing "slack-jawed astonishment" and fury that made him want to "knee someone in the groin" or "throw up in a potted plant."

In plain terms, he argued that more than a billion dollars across several state programs was siphoned off through elaborate criminal schemes.

Federal prosecutors, not political commentators, uncovered the scale of the theft. Their findings pointed to a five-year pattern involving eighty-six charged individuals, seventy-eight of whom were identified as having Somali ancestry. Senator Kennedy stressed that the issue was not about race but about criminals who exploited public programs intended for the vulnerable.

Even so, the concentration of the fraud within a single immigrant community raises clear questions about oversight, integration policy, and the willingness of state officials to confront politically sensitive problems.

Federal prosecutors charged 86 individuals, with 78 linked to Somali ancestry, in schemes defrauding programs administered under Governor Tim Walz.

The Feeding Our Future nonprofit claimed to feed Somali children but funneled funds to luxury cars, yachts, vacations, jewelry, and overseas real estate, peaking at $100 million annually from an initial few million. Housing Stabilization Services exploded from $2.6 million in 2020 to $104 million in 2024, with providers billing for nonexistent services to Medicaid-eligible people from treatment centers. Autism therapy fraud saw providers like Asha Farhan Hassan bribe Somali parents $400–$1,500 per child to fake diagnoses, ballooning requests to $400 million by 2023.

Prosecutors have traced stolen funds wired to Somalia and Kenya, where Al-Shabaab, an Islamic terrorist organization like Hamas, skims a "mafia-style tax" on transactions.

Why did this go on for so long? Kennedy pointed directly at political interference. State employees saw suspicious patterns and attempted to halt payments. The response they faced, according to the Senator, was a mix of lawsuits and accusations of racism. These accusations hung over every attempt to enforce basic standards. Regulators backed off and programs ballooned while the money continued to vanish.

A legislative auditor and a fraud investigator told interviewers that the threat of litigation and negative press had a chilling effect on politicians who viewed the Somali voting bloc as necessary to their party. This was not a matter of compassion but of political calculation. When regulators believed they could not act without being personally attacked, fraud flourished.

Internal posts from employees of the Minnesota Department of Human Services were even more blunt. They accused Governor Tim Walz of enabling the fraud, retaliating against whistleblowers, and ignoring obvious warning signs. Those employees may face their own investigations, but their claims show that the institutional culture discouraged scrutiny.

Kennedy ended with a simple statement. It's not about race. It is about crooks who stole extraordinary sums from American taxpayers. He argued that everyone involved, including public officials who failed in their duty, belongs in jail.