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Minnesota officials are facing scrutiny after a report indicated that welfare fraud involving members of the state’s Somali community funneled taxpayer money to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab.
City Journal reported the findings, citing law enforcement sources who said “untold millions” of dollars from Minnesota programs were transferred overseas.
According to the report, state funds, including money from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), were allegedly routed through individuals in Minnesota and moved abroad.
The outlet reported that the funds passed through “hawalas,” clan-based money transfer networks, before being laundered to Al-Shabaab.
The group, affiliated with Al Qaeda, has carried out attacks that have killed Americans, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
City Journal quoted an unnamed source with past counterterrorism contracting experience who stated, “This is a third-rail conversation, but the largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
The report did not specify dates, the length of time the transfers occurred, or the individual DHS programs where the money originated.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s administration has come under additional scrutiny following separate federal investigations into fraud within a DHS program intended to help Minnesotans obtain taxpayer-funded housing.
That program, Housing Stabilization Services, was shut down on October 31 “due to widespread fraud,” City Journal reported.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told the outlet that six of the eight people federally charged in connection with fraud in the Housing Stabilization Services program are of Somali descent.