Minnesota Governor Tim Walz talked about the latest fraud allegations from federal prosecutors on Friday, pledging more accountability.
It comes after another release of information from the U.S. Attorney's office alleging a staggering $9 Billion in Medicaid fraud in Minnesota.
Prosecutors estimate that at least half of the $18 billion spent on 14 Minnesota Medicaid programs since 2018 may be fraudulent.
Walz, when asked about the amount the feds are saying could be stolen, countered that the $9 billion estimate remains unproven "speculation."
"$1 is too many, but I'm not going to shy away from the great accomplishments we've made here, the things we've done, our ability to fix this, and I'll take accountability for it," said Walz. "I expect to get accountability from the Republicans to help us out and fix this."
He also called on federal authorities to share specific evidence so the state can "slam the door" on criminal providers.
Walz is facing intense scrutiny following more revelations this week that money spent on state-run programs may have been stolen, including from people who came from as far as way as Pennsylvania, who First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said came to Minnesota because they heard it was "easy money."
Walz is now striking back against those claims from the U.S. Attorneys office, saying the latest figures are "sensationalized."
"They didn't come in here and find that. They didn't come in here and stop payments," Walz added. "They can't do that. But what they didn't tell you is we're partners in this. They didn't tell you, because they don't tell us, and it's been very clear that this is being driven from D.C. And I acknowledge it again, you're going to hear this from me, you didn't hear it the other night in a presidential address. This is on my watch. I am accountable for this."
Thompson maintains these levels of fraud should have been stopped far earlier.
"Our state has done not a good job of mining these programs in terms of responsibility," Thompson said Thursday. "There's lots of levels of responsibility. There's criminal culpability, obviously, and then there's other accountability. And then obviously, I think all of us as a state have to grapple with that."
Walz is now the subject of a formal U.S. House Oversight Committee investigation into whether his administration ignored early warnings and whistleblowers.
New charges in housing services program and more under investigation
Five new defendants were charged Thursday in connection with a Minnesota housing services fraud, in which they stole the money instead of helping Medicaid recipients find stable housing, Thompson said. One defendant fled the country after his company received a federal grand jury subpoena, the prosecutor said.
The five charged include two Philadelphia residents who have been accused of “fraud tourism," Thompson said, because they saw the Minnesota Housing Stability Services Program as a source of “easy money.” They are accused of submitting $3.5 million in fraudulent claims.
They join eight others who were charged in September for their alleged roles in the scheme to defraud the program, which has been shuttered entirely.
Authorities also served a search warrant Thursday in an investigation of a third state-run program, Integrated Community Supports, which was intended to support adults with disabilities who want to live independently. Payments to providers are on track to reach $180 million this year — exponentially more than when the state program was introduced in 2021 — leading prosecutors to believe it's another program that has been abused.
“Every day, we look under a rock and find a new $50 million fraud scheme,” Thompson said.
Money sent abroad but no evidence it has purposefully funded terrorism
Trump’s rhetoric against Somalis in Minnesota has intensified since a conservative news outlet, City Journal, claimed last month that taxpayer dollars from defrauded government programs have flowed to the Somali militant group al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaida.
While Thompson said money sent to Somalia might have indirectly gotten into the hands of al-Shabab, he emphasized that there was no evidence that defendants were sending money to or otherwise supporting terrorist organizations.
Still, Trump has referred to the Somali community as “garbage” and said he doesn’t want immigrants from the East African country in the U.S., rhetoric that has stoked fear and frustration among many in the community.
Thompson said a significant amount of the fraudulently obtained funds have been sent abroad, and much of it has been used to purchase real estate in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, which has a large Somali diaspora.
“There’s no indication that the defendants that we’ve charged were radicalized or seeking to fund al-Shabab or other terrorist groups,” Thompson said.
Instead, one Feeding Our Future defendant spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an aircraft in Nairobi. Another wired $1.5 million to China and Kenya, prosecutors said, and sent a text message claiming to have invested $6 million in Kenya. And one man bought Mediterranean coastal property in Alanya, Turkey.