On December 3, 2025, Senator John Kennedy addressed the Senate, revealing a staggering tale of fraud within Minnesota’s welfare system. He detailed how approximately one billion dollars in taxpayer money vanished, stolen through a series of meticulously crafted schemes.
Kennedy began by acknowledging America’s generosity, a nation that consistently provides for its most vulnerable citizens. This very generosity, he argued, makes such blatant theft all the more infuriating. The situation in Minnesota, he asserted, wasn’t simply mismanagement – it was outright criminal activity.
The first scheme centered around “Feeding Our Future,” a nonprofit ostensibly dedicated to providing meals to children in the Somali community. Initially receiving modest funding, the organization rapidly expanded, eventually controlling around $100 million annually. Investigators soon discovered a disturbing truth: the children on paper didn’t match the meals served.
Instead of nourishing young lives, funds were diverted for personal gain. Luxury purchases – yachts, lavish vacations, expensive jewelry, and high-end home furnishings – became commonplace, fueled by stolen taxpayer dollars. The program’s stated purpose was a facade for widespread enrichment.
A second scheme involved housing for the homeless. A nonprofit requested escalating sums of money, quickly jumping from a few million to over $100 million per year, all under the guise of providing shelter. However, Kennedy revealed that not a single dollar reached those in need; the funds were simply pocketed by those in charge.
Perhaps the most unsettling scheme involved autism services. Providers sought funding to treat autistic children, but faced a critical shortage of qualifying cases. They resorted to bribery, offering Somali parents between $400 and $1,500 per child to falsely certify them as autistic. This operation quickly ballooned, with funding requests reaching hundreds of millions.
Asha Farhan Hassan emerged as the central figure in the autism fraud, also implicated in the child nutrition scheme. The scale of the deception was immense, fueled by a willingness to exploit vulnerable families and a system seemingly unable to stop it.
Throughout these schemes, Kennedy emphasized, state employees attempted to raise alarms, but were systematically silenced. Welfare officials questioning the inflated claims faced threats of lawsuits and accusations of racism, warned that challenging minority-owned businesses would trigger legal action and negative publicity.
These concerns were relayed to senior officials, yet no meaningful action was taken. Minnesota’s legislative auditor confirmed that threats of litigation and damaging press coverage directly influenced political decision-making, effectively stifling oversight.
A fraud investigator within the attorney general’s office revealed a chilling perception: aggressive enforcement would incite political backlash within the Somali community, a key Democratic voting bloc. This fear, Kennedy argued, paralyzed effective action.
Minnesota Department of Human Services employees publicly blamed Governor Tim Walz, stating he was “100% responsible” for the massive fraud and accusing his administration of retaliating against whistleblowers through intimidation and surveillance. The atmosphere was one of fear and suppression.
Adding another layer of complexity, a report alleged that some of the stolen funds may have been funneled to al-Shabaab, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization in Somalia. While unconfirmed, prosecutors were actively investigating this disturbing possibility.
Kennedy vehemently refuted accusations of racism, stating the issue wasn’t about race, but about criminal behavior. The facts, he insisted, pointed to leaders within the Somali community orchestrating the schemes, with Somali-owned businesses heavily involved, and kickbacks paid to Somali parents. Ignoring these facts, he argued, was a matter of political expediency.
Kennedy concluded with a stark warning: Minnesota politicians allowed the fraud to persist for political reasons, diverting vital resources from those genuinely in need. He asserted that refusing to confront the scandal out of fear of being labeled racist only enabled further abuse and eroded public trust in the system.
