OLD NEWS BRINGS NEW OUTRAGE

Ralph Bristol

 …and distracts from the important story

by Ralph Bristol, Facebook, Dec. 5, 2025-  Most of the major media have recently reported the 3-year-old story of the Minnesota’s welfare fraud, funded by Covid relief and involving Minnesota’s expansive Somali population. 

• (NYT) 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. (The first charges were filed three years ago.)

When Trump and Biden threw more than $5 trillion into the population to help them cope with Covid and the government order to shut down most businesses for months at a time, it should come as no surprise that fraud is going to run rampant. $1 billion may be more than Minnesota spends on the DOC in a year, but it’s .0002 of the $5 trillion wasted by the very fact of the bipartisan Covid relief.  And, it’s also a very tiny percentage of the fraud inspired by the Covid relief spending.

• (WSJ) Some 86 individuals have been charged with defrauding Medicaid and the Federal Child Nutrition Program in Minnesota—yes, literally stealing lunch money from kids. “No one was doing anything about the red flags,” one defendant’s attorney told the New York Times. “It was like someone was stealing money from the cookie jar and they kept refilling it.”

• (CBS) Three years ago, federal prosecutors in Minnesota filed the first charges in what they described as the "largest pandemic fraud in the United States." The $250 million scheme — which now includes upward of 75 defendants — revolved around a nonprofit group called Feeding Our Future that partnered with the Minnesota Department of Education and U.S. Department of Agriculture to distribute meals to children. 

Yes, this is a very old story – recently revived by President Trump as part of his campaign against refugees, illegal immigrants and Democrats. On Tuesday, the president called immigrants from Somalia "garbage," and claimed they "destroyed Minnesota" and "contribute nothing."

• (CBS) Most of the people charged in the Feeding Our Future case are of Somali descent, though Bock, the group's founder and the scheme's alleged "mastermind," is White. Prosecutors in the alleged autism services fraud scheme said the defendant "approached parents in the Somali community to recruit their children." The named fraud defendants appear to represent a small percentage of Minnesota's Somali American community, which is among the largest in the nation.  A particular focus of Mr. Trump's ire is Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who was born in Somalia and came to the U.S. as a teenager. He has also lashed out at Walz, whom he referred to last week using a slur for people with intellectual disabilities.

Now, can we go back to discussing the kind of thing that inspires this kind of fraud – runaway government spending by both parties?  Until we stop that, focusing on the fraud it births instead of the seed of the fraud only inspires more fraud.

Large businesses can assume a “shrinkage” rate of about 1.5%.  Shrinkage is a nice word for employee theft and other forms of internal dishonesty.  It is reasonable to expect at least that much fraud in the consumption and distribution of government handouts. I would be very surprised if $1 billion is more than one-tenth of one percent of the fraud that the outrageous spending on Covid-19 inspired. 

Focusing on this one incident in Minnesota may serve a few political purposes, but nothing more. And, it distracts all the major media, Congress and the president from the much bigger, more important story, which – of course – is part of the plan by those in charge. 

So, once again – to refocus you – it’s the spending, stupid!

Ralph Bristol is the former long-time morning talk radio host broadcasting on Supertalk 99.7 WTN. He was one of the less provocative and bombastic of conservative radio personalities, more thoughtful and grounded in conservative ideas. He left talk radio in 2018 and retired. He lives in Nashville. 

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