WASHINGTON (AP) – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday his Department is targeting businesses that people use to wire money to family members abroad as the Trump administration rachets up investigations into fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community. Details from Correspondent Bernie Bennett. VERBATIM: President Donald Trump has targeted the Somalian diaspora in Minnesota with […]
Audio
Treasury Department Looks into Fraud in Minnesota
WASHINGTON (AP) – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday his Department is targeting businesses that people use to wire money to family members abroad as the Trump administration rachets up investigations into fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community. Details from Correspondent Bernie Bennett.
VERBATIM:
President Donald Trump has targeted the Somalian diaspora in Minnesota with immigration enforcement actions and has made a series of disparaging comments about the community. He has said the state is “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”
The new action was prompted in part by a series of fraud cases, including a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future accused of stealing pandemic aid meant for school meals. Prosecutors have put the losses from that case at $300 million.
Bessent has pointed to a report by conservative news outlet City Journal, which claimed that taxpayer dollars from defrauded government programs flowed to al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked militant group that controls parts of Somalia.
Bernie Bennett, Washington.