Treasury Secretary launches probe into Minnesota tax dollars allegedly funding Al-Shabaab terrorists
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has announced a federal investigation into allegations that Minnesota tax dollars may have been misappropriated to fund the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. This inquiry comes in the wake of a troubling report from the Manhattan Institute, which highlighted a significant fraud scheme involving Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program and other organizations. The report, authored by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo, claims that members of Minnesota’s Somali community were involved in fraudulent activities that resulted in millions of dollars being funneled back to Somalia, potentially benefiting Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organization. Bessent emphasized the urgency of the situation, attributing the mismanagement of taxpayer funds to the Biden administration and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, while asserting that the investigation aims to protect American taxpayers from inadvertently financing global terrorism.
The investigation was prompted by findings that a substantial portion of the funds allegedly diverted to Al-Shabaab originated from Minnesota’s welfare programs. Thorpe and Rufo noted that approximately 40% of households in Somalia receive remittances from abroad, with the Somali diaspora sending $1.7 billion to their home country in 2023 alone—an amount exceeding the Somali government’s budget for that year. The report reveals that these funds were often transferred through a network of informal money traders known as “hawalas,” which have been linked to the financing of Al-Shabaab. Glenn Kerns, a former detective with the Seattle Police Department, revealed that many individuals involved in these money transfers were receiving government assistance, raising serious questions about the integrity of welfare programs in Minnesota. The investigation, which has prompted reactions from various political figures, including Governor Walz, who expressed his willingness to cooperate if a connection is established, underscores the complexities of fraud and terrorism financing in the U.S. and highlights the need for stringent oversight of taxpayer-funded programs.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday launched a federal probe into claims that Minnesota tax dollars were siphoned to the terrorist group Al-Shabaab under the Biden administration and Governor Tim Walz – an allegation he said demands urgent scrutiny.
“At my direction,
@USTreasury
is investigating allegations that under the feckless mismanagement of the Biden Administration and Governor Tim Walz, hardworking Minnesotans’ tax dollars may have been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab,” Bessent posted on X. “Thanks to the leadership of @POTUS @realDonaldTrump, we are acting fast to ensure Americans’ taxes are not funding acts of global terror.
“We will share our findings as our investigation continues,” he added.
Walz’s office told Fox News Digital that Walz said last week that should a connection be found between Minnesota tax dollars and Al-Shabaab, he welcomed an investigation.
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Last month, an investigation conducted by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo of the Manhattan Institute uncovered a web of fraud involving Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, Feeding Our Future and other organizations in a bombshell report.
Thorpe and Rufo noted that, in many cases, members of Minnesota’s Somali community were perpetrators of fraud. They added that federal counterterrorism sources confirmed that millions of dollars in stolen funds were sent back to Somalia, which is how Al-Shabaab got the cash.
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Thorpe and Rufo sought to answer a bigger question when looking into the schemes: “Where did the money go?”
As it turned out, the Somali fraud rings sent money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia and, according to reports, approximately 40% of households in Somalia get remittances from abroad. Thorpe and Rufo state that in 2023, the Somali diaspora sent $1.7 billion to the country, which was higher than the Somali government’s budget that same year.
Thorpe and Rufo discovered that the funds were being funneled to Al-Shabaab, an
al Qaeda-linked
terror organization. Multiple law enforcement sources informed the duo that Minnesota’s Somali community sent millions of dollars through a network of money traders known as “hawalas” that wound up in the hands of the terror group.
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Glenn Kerns, a retired Seattle Police Department detective who spent 14 years on a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, told Thorpe and Rufo that the Somalis ran a complex money network and were routing cash on commercial flights from the Seattle airport to the hawala networks in Somalia.
“We had sources going into the hawalas to send money. I went down to [Minnesota] and pulled all of their records and, well s—, all these Somalis sending out money are on DHS benefits,” Kerns told Thorpe and Rufo.
A confidential source told Thorpe and Rufo that “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
“Every scrap of economic activity, in the Twin Cities, in America, throughout Western Europe, anywhere Somalis are concentrated, every cent that is sent back to Somalia benefits Al-Shabaab in some way,” a former official who worked on the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force told Thorpe and Rufo.
Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
