Minnesota Taxpayer Money Allegedly Linked to Terrorist Group Al-Shabaab Through Fraud

A new investigation has found that Minnesota taxpayer dollars were going well beyond the borders of the North Star State and into the hands of Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda.

Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo of the Manhattan Institute has uncovered a fraud ring involving Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, Feeding Our Future and other organizations in an explosive 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, and that is how Al-Shabaab obtained the money.

Thorpe and Rufo sought to answer a larger question by examining these schemes: “Where did the money go?”

It turned out that Somali fraud networks sent money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia and, according to reports, around 40% of Somali households receive remittances from abroad. Thorpe and Rufo claim that in 2023, the Somali diaspora sent $1.7 billion to the country, which was more than the Somali government’s budget in the same year.

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Women walk along a tree-lined street in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, home to one of the largest Somali communities in the United States. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)

Thorpe and Rufo discovered that the funds were being funneled to Al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization linked to Al-Qaeda. Multiple law enforcement sources informed the duo that Minnesota’s Somali community sent millions of dollars through a network of money dealers known as “hawalas” that ended up in the hands of the terrorist group.

Glenn Kerns, a retired Seattle police detective who spent 14 years on a federal joint terrorism task force, told Thorpe and Rufo that the Somalis operated a complex financial network and funneled money on commercial flights from the Seattle airport to hawala networks in Somalia.

“We had sources that were going to the hawalas to send money. I went to (Minnesota) and pulled all their records and, well, all these Somalis who are sending money are getting DHS benefits,” Kerns told Thorpe and Rufo.

A confidential source told Thorpe and Rufo that “Al-Shabaab’s biggest funder is the Minnesota taxpayer.”

“Every bit of economic activity, in the Twin Cities, in America, throughout Western Europe, wherever Somalis are concentrated, every penny sent back to Somalia benefits Al-Shabaab in one way or another,” a former official who worked in the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force told Thorpe and Rufo.

The HSS program was started with the aim of helping people in need, but it turned into a fraudulent scheme. The program was initially estimated to cost $2.6 million, but in its first year it paid out more than $21 million in claims, according to Thorpe and Rufo. Costs only increased from there, with the program paying $61 million in claims in the first six months of 2025.

On Aug. 1, the Minnesota Department of Human Services terminated the program after finding that payment to 77 housing stabilization service providers had been stopped due to “credible allegations of fraud,” Thorpe and Rufo reported.

A little more than a month after the program was shut down, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson announced criminal charges for HSS fraud against Moktar Hassan Aden, Mustafa Dayib Ali, Khalid Ahmed Dayib, Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, Christopher Adesoji Falade, Emmanuel Oluwademilade Falade, Asad Ahmed Adow and Anwar Ahmed Adow. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office told Thorpe and Rufo that all six were members of Minnesota’s Somali community.

Somali National Army soldiers escort members of the press to hideouts used by the al-Shabaab terrorist group in the Sabiid-Aanole areas of Somalia June 23, 2025. (Aboukar Mohamed Muhidin/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Thompson said at a September news conference that the problem goes beyond overcharging, but often involves “pure shell companies created solely to defraud the system.” Additionally, scam perpetrators often targeted vulnerable people, such as people recently released from drug rehab, and signed them up for services they allegedly did not plan to provide.

On September 18, the same day the HSS indictments were announced, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that a 56th defendant had pleaded guilty in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. The number of defendants has only increased, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office announcing charges against a 77th accused on November 20.

Feeding Our Future received $3.4 million in federal funds disbursed by the state in 2019, but when COVID-19 hit, the organization quickly increased its number of sponsored sites, according to Thorpe and Rufo, who added that in 2021, Feeding Our Future received nearly $200 million in funding.

“Using false meal counts, falsified attendance records, and fabricated invoices, the perpetrators of the fraud ring claimed to serve thousands of meals per day, seven days a week, to underprivileged children,” Thorpe and Rufo wrote in their report.

The funds did not go to the needy; the money was instead used to pay for luxury vehicles and real estate in the United States, Turkey and Kenya, among other places.

When officials became suspicious of the nonprofit in 2020, Feeding Our Futures filed a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination related to pending applications on the site. In the lawsuit, the nonprofit notes that it “targets” foreign nationals, according to Thorpe and Rufo. They also note that “several people” involved in the project donated to Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and that Omar’s deputy district manager defended the group.

A street sign reading “Somali St” is pictured with Riverside Plaza in the background in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)

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Days later, Thompson announced an indictment in another fraud scheme, this time involving children’s autism services.

Asha Farhan Hassan, a member of Minnesota’s Somali community who was also charged in the Feeding Our Future scam, is accused of playing a role in a $14 million scheme against the Minnesota Intensive Early and Behavioral Developmental Intervention program. According to Thorpe and Rufo, Hassan and his co-conspirators allegedly recruited children from the Somali community for autism therapy services. Prosecutors suggested Hassan would facilitate fraudulent autism diagnoses for children who did not have it.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Hassan would use monthly bribes to boost enrollment and that the payments ranged between $300 and $1,500 per month per child.

“To be clear, this is not an isolated scheme. From Feeding Our Future to Housing Stabilization Services and now Autism Services, these massive fraud schemes form a network that has stolen billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars. Each case we bring exposes another part of this network. The challenge is immense, but our work continues,” Thompson said in a declaration.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks to reporters after a meeting with then-President Joe Biden at the White House July 3, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Minnesota State Rep. Kristin Robbins, who is running to unseat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, shared Thorpe and Rufo’s report on X, writing, “Billions of our tax dollars have been stolen under (Tim Walz). We need help from (Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel) and our partners (at the U.S. Attorney’s Office) to find out whether our state dollars are funding terrorism.

Walz’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.