USDA Pauses Grants To Minnesota Amid Somali Fraud Crackdown

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) suspended all active and future grants to the state of Minnesota amid revelations of billions in fraud and a perceived lack of cooperation from state Democrats, Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Friday evening.

“No more handouts to thieves!” she wrote on X. Rollins shared the letter her office directed to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey suspending the grants, which total $129 million.

The state must provide payment justifications for all grants since January 2025 within 30 days and all grants moving forward, Rollins wrote.

“The American people deserve to know that their taxpayer dollars are helping those in need — not criminals,” the letter reads.

The announcement prompted a swift reply from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

“I will not allow you to take from Minnesotans in need,” he wrote on X.

Ellison himself faces allegations of nonfeasance or complicity in the scam. He was allegedly recorded in December 2021 fielding complaints of racism and unfair treatment from individuals who would later become campaign donors and criminal defendants in the Feeding Our Future fraud case.

While U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson announced in December the Department of Justice had identified 14 fraudulent funding streams, the bulk of federal convictions thus far have stemmed from the Feeding Our Future scandal.

The Feeding Our Future siphoned $300 million from federal and state coffers under the pretense of providing meals to children during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The nonprofit instead diverted the funds towards purchasing luxury cars, designer goods, and African real estate, court records show. The criminals tapped funding from USDA grants to Minnesota under the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program initiatives for the scheme, according to Rollins’s letter. Notably, 85 of the 98 defendants in Minnesota fraud-related cases are reportedly of Somali descent.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the USDA waived accountability mechanisms in the Federal Child Nutrition Program, allowing for-profit restaurants to participate and for off-site distribution outside of educational programs, according to the DOJ.

In her letter, Rollins pointed to ways in which the Walz administration impeded federal efforts to root fraudsters out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by blocking Rollins’s efforts to recertify the rolls.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services repeatedly provided false SNAP figures to USDA, a KSTP 5 reporter uncovered in the course of pressing state officials about a 174% jump in SNAP spending from 2020 to 2021.