MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal Homeland Security officials were conducting a fraud investigation in Minneapolis on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
Noem posted a video on the social platform X showing Homeland Security officers entering an unidentified business and questioning the staff behind the counter. Noem said police were conducting a “massive investigation into child care and other rampant fraud.”
“The American people deserve to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent and to arrest abuses when they are discovered,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a release.
The action came just a day after FBI Director Kash Patel said on
Patel said previous fraud arrests in Minnesota were “just the tip of the iceberg.”
A federal prosecutor claimed in early December that half or more of the approximately $18 billion in federal funds supporting 14 projects in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said at the time that fraud would not be tolerated and that his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure it is stopped and perpetrators caught.”
President Donald Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over fraud cases that have so far resulted in dozens of people being charged with stealing $250 million in a pandemic-related fraud scheme to steal money from federal programs.
A spokesman for Walz did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.
Tensions have arisen in recent weeks between state and federal law enforcement in Minneapolis-St. Louis as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has focused on the Somali community in the area. The São Paulo region is the largest in the country.
