A series of fraud scandals and allegations concerning federal funds to Minnesota state-administered social services programs occurred during the 2020s. The largest and earliest case is the Feeding Our Future case, in which charges were first brought in 2022. Feeding Our Future was a nonprofit that claimed to provide meals to schoolchildren during the COVID-19 pandemic. By July 2026, out of 80 suspects indicted in the case, 69 had been convicted, including more than 60 via plea deals. Seven had been convicted at trial, while many others awaited trial. Estimates of the total Feeding Our Future losses range from $250 million to $350 million.

Amid ongoing investigation into the Feeding Our Future case, potential fraud was identified and investigated in a number of other state-run social services schemes, including emergency housing, autism therapy for children, home health assistance, and Medicaid. State lawmakers passed some bipartisan anti-fraud measures in the 2025 Minnesota legislative session. By late 2025, Minnesota had shut down its housing stabilization system and paused payments in 14 Medicaid programs, including autism therapy, while launching an audit. In 2026, the state created a fully independent Office of Inspector General in Minnesota to investigate fraud, as well as funding additional inspectors and other anti-fraud measures.

In December 2025, a viral video by YouTuber Nick Shirley, which includes limited evidence for the allegations, ignited new allegations of social services frauds at Somali-American daycare centers and health care companies. Shirley previously built a following with anti-immigrant videos. The Department of Health and Human Services froze all federal childcare payments to Minnesota, and new state and federal investigations and legal proceedings were initiated in response to the video's publicity. Citing a lack of time and a need to focus on his work, Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota who had been seeking reelection in 2026, withdrew his bid for a third term, and later accepted responsibility for state agencies he oversaw failing to stop fraud sooner.

Fraud cases

Feeding Our Future

Feeding Our Future was founded by Aimee Bock in 2016. It repeatedly applied for grants from the state of Minnesota but was denied due to allegations of mismanagement and abuses. In July 2019, months before the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) officials identified early signs of fraud, including meal claims they considered implausible. According to former state employees, Bock pressured workers who raised questions within weeks of the organization's first submissions, and officials began documenting her "concerning behavior". Before the pandemic, Feeding Our Future billed the state for approximately $3.4 million.

The IRS revoked Feeding Our Future's tax status as a nonprofit in February 2020. After the onset of the pandemic and a large increase in the amount of federal aid available, Feeding Our Future applied for funding to provide meals to schoolchildren, as schools were closed. Some experienced MDE employees, suspicious of potential fraud, sought to investigate meal sites. The employees felt that their efforts were stymied by MDE leadership, which they called reluctant to take action for fear of litigation. MDE began giving Feeding Our Future substantial grants after it threatened legal action against the state.

After MDE began delaying responses to Feeding Our Future's grant applications, the organization sued the state in November 2020, arguing that it was being discriminated against "because of race, national origin, color, and religion". Katherine Theisen, a senior employee of Minnesota's Office of the Legislative Auditor, later called MDE's response "a systemic failure." Feeding Our Future's political supporters, including both Democratic and Republican state senators, advocated for the organization to receive funding or passed along constituent concerns that MDE was blocking grants. MDE raised concerns about fraud with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the FBI began investigating in February 2021. Bock maintained ties with local politicians, including Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and state senator Omar Fateh. An aide to Frey, Abdi Salah, pleaded guilty to wire fraud; Frey said he was unaware of Salah's activities. Another supporter was Minneapolis council member Jamal Osman, whose wife operated a Feeding Our Future meal site that received more than $400,000 in funding. In December 2021, a group of Feeding Our Future operators met with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, saying they were facing discrimination by state agencies. Ellison told them he would look into their claims, but took no further action; he later released a statement saying they had "tried to exploit [his] good faith engagement, but they were not successful."

In March 2021, Feeding Our Future sued MDE to resume payments. In April, Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann ruled that MDE acted too quickly in halting payments and lifted the payment freeze. MDE and Governor Walz decided that the court ruling forced them to resume payments to Feeding Our Future. MDE said, "the court made it clear that if MDE were to continue the legal fight to withhold payments, MDE would incur sanctions and legal penalties". Guthmann issued a rare public rebuke in response to Walz's statements, saying he never ordered MDE to resume payments to Feeding our Future and that MDE had itself determined that Feeding Our Future had resolved "serious deficiencies" that justified its initial payment freeze. After Guthmann's ruling, MDE continued to reject applications for new meal sites from Feeding Our Future and contacted the FBI. In June 2021, state senator Omar Fateh praised Bock and Feeding our Future for securing funding against MDE's payment freeze. A witness in a Feeding our Future trial testified that Fateh called Attorney General Ellison on behalf of Feeding Our Future. Also in 2021, Frey met with MDE to push MDE Commissioner Heather Mueller into restarting funding. Bock had prepared talking points for the meeting, which were delivered to Frey through Salah, although Frey denied using them during the meeting.

In January 2022, FBI raids began targeting Feeding Our Future, which finally stopped payments to the organization. Politicians who received donations from suspects implicated in Feeding Our Future, including Frey, Fateh, and U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, returned or donated their contributions. By July 2026, of 80 suspects indicted in the fraud, 69 had been convicted, including 62 via plea deals. Seven had been convicted at trial, while many others awaited trial. Although more than $250million is alleged to have been stolen, only around $75million had been recovered as of early 2025, as much of the money was spent on unrecoverable expenses like luxury meals and hotels or was transferred to overseas investments that the U.S. cannot seize. Joe Thompson, the lead federal prosecutor, estimated that total fraud from the case could approach $500 million. As most perpetrators, excluding Bock, were Somali Americans, the scandal increased attention on the community, including from the second Trump administration. In May 2026, Bock was sentenced to more than 41 years imprisonment (500 months) and ordered to pay over $240 million in restitution.

Merrick Garland, attorney general during the Biden administration, called it the country's largest pandemic relief fraud scheme. The nonpartisan state legislative auditor's office later found that Feeding our Future's threats to accuse MDE of racism had affected the agency's judgment. An investigator from the state's fraud investigation office (who was himself Somali) said that concerns over being portrayed as racist made the Walz administration reluctant to pursue fraud allegations. Federal officials began investigations into Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) providers in December 2024, in connection with Feeding our Future investigations. At least a dozen defendants suspected of fraud related to Feeding our Future also owned or were associated with autism centers in Minnesota. Federal officials charged several defendants in connection with EIDBI fraud in 2025. In December 2025, Asha Farhan Hassan pleaded guilty to stealing $14 million in EIDBI funding.

Integrated Community Supports Minnesota's Integrated Community Supports (ICS) program launched in 2021, intended to aid adults with disabilities. It initially cost the state $4.6 million a year when it launched in 2021, but "explosively grew" to nearly $180 million in 2025. Fraudulent providers for ICS were suspected of failing to provide services that they billed to Minnesota. Lack of care has been connected to the death of at least one participant in ICS. Rick Clemmer, an ICS enrollee, died in 2025 from a medical emergency with nobody around to call for emergency services. His ICS provider, Abdul Ibrahim of Ultimate Home Health Services LLC, claimed he only checked on Clemmer once a day, despite Ultimate Home Health Services billing Minnesota for 12 hours of one on one care daily. In 2025, at least 17 providers were suspended by DHS due to credible allegations of fraud.

In December 2025, the FBI raided Ultimate Home Health Services LLC, alleging that it billed for services that were never provided. In May 2026, federal prosecutors indicted the owner of Ultimate Home Health on fraud charges of $1.4 million.

Substance use disorder services Evergreen Recovery, a substance use disorder services provider, billed for 203 hours of services provided by a single employee in a day. KARE11, a local TV station, broke the story in May 2024 after a whistleblower contacted them after she received no response from reporting Evergreen to DHS for months. Evergreen's CEO and CFO plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in October 2025.

Kyros, a for-profit company, was Minnesota's largest provider for addiction peer recovery services. It was founded by Daniel Larson, who also founded the nonprofit Refocus Recovery. For-profit companies like Kyros may not bill Medicaid for peer recovery services, but nonprofits like Refocus Recovery are able to. While nominally independent, 96% of Refocus Recovery's revenue went to subsidiaries of Kyros in 2022, effectively allowing Kyros to bill Medicaid through Refocus Recovery. The Alliance for Recovery Centered Organizations (ARCO) reported irregularities between Kyros and Refocus Recovery in 2022, but DHS granted certification for Refocus to continue billing Medicaid after the nonprofit directly appealed to DHS commissioner Jodi Harpstead. A March 2024 KARE11 investigation found that Refocus Recovery also billed for services never provided and questionable services, like watching movies. DHS halted payments to Refocus Recovery in September 2024 and Kyros subsequently shut down.

Nuway Alliance, a nonprofit that served as one of the state's largest addiction treatment providers, was accused of obtaining tens of millions of excess Medicaid payments by exploiting billing rules which allowed any amount over 30 minutes of services to be billed as an hour, resulting in double-billing of services in overlapping periods of time. Nuway would provide services for 35 minutes, bill for an hour, then provide another 35 minutes of services after a 10-minute break. Internal records from Nuway indicated that officials identified the billing practices as problematic. It was also alleged to have used illegal kickbacks by providing free housing as an incentive to recruit patients into its addiction recovery services. DHS halted payments to Nuway in February 2025. In June 2025, Nuway paid $18.5 million in a settlement to the US Attorney's Office, without admitting guilt.

Home and Community Based Services