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Federal prosecutors announced new indictments Thursday in the widening Minnesota fraud scandal, this time involving two Philadelphia-based men accused of traveling to Minneapolis after a friend told them the taxpayer-funded programs there presented “a good opportunity to make money.”
Anthony Waddel Jefferson and Lester Brown are accused of siphoning millions from federally funded programs administered by Minnesota officials that were meant to help people with disabilities and those suffering from addiction.
Unlike many of the individuals previously caught up in the state’s sprawling fraud scandal, they don’t appear to have ties to Minnesota’s large Somali-American community. Prosecutors say they don’t appear to have ties to Minnesota at all.
“Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry — people coming to our state purely to exploit and defraud its programs,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson, who brought the new charges. “This is a deeply unsettling reality that all Minnesotans should understand.”
Court filings allege the men submitted up to $3.5 million in “fake and inflated bills” for Medicaid reimbursements after they set up a company intended to provide housing and other services to individuals who qualified for the program. They allegedly fleeced the housing program in Minnesota despite “living on the other side of the country and having no network in or connections to Minnesota or its communities.”
In a separate indictment filed Thursday, a man allegedly registered a company to help channel state resources to the families of children with autism. But the man, Abdinajib Hassan Yussef, allegedly spent some of the $6 million he took from the program on the purchase of a Freightliner semi-truck.
The new indictments came as the Trump administration and its allies have stepped up attacks on Minnesota’s leadership, including Gov. Tim Walz, who was the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president in the 2024 elections.
Walz has acknowledged his state fell short in its fraud fighting efforts and listed a series of steps he has taken to implement more safeguards for taxpayer-funded social services.
Within the past week, the Trump-appointed heads of at least three cabinet agencies have signaled fresh investigations into the state’s handling of federal funds — actions that a spokesperson for Walz called “politically motivated” in a statement on Wednesday.
“While the governor has been fighting fraud, the Trump administration has spent the past month sending dozens of letters, statements and social media posts filled with threats to withhold funding and investigate the state,” the spokesperson said.
Minnesota is not the only state to be hit by such crimes. Yesterday, federal prosecutors indicted two men in Massachusetts for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) money meant for needy children.
But Thursday’s indictments in Minnesota were the latest development in a string of multimillion-dollar fraud schemes that have plagued that state. So far, federal prosecutors have convicted 62 people in connection to the scandal, which tops the list of the nation’s most costly COVID-era fraud sprees. Federal prosecutors estimate taxpayer losses exceed $1 billion.
The initial scheme involved a nonprofit organization that tricked state and federal officials into paying them to serve food to thousands of hungry children but never provided the meals. That group, Feeding Our Future, allegedly raked in $250 million.
Additional fraud cases have since come into focus. This year, in August, state officials shut down a housing program designed to help seniors and people with disabilities, citing “large-scale fraud.” In September, prosecutors charged eight people with defrauding the program by enrolling as providers and submitting millions in “fake and inflated bills.”
Also in September, a person was charged with defrauding another state program that provides services to kids with autism. Her company was accused of hiring unqualified “behavioral technicians” and submitting false claims to the state that indicated the staff had worked with children enrolled in the program. She also allegedly paid kickbacks to parents who agreed to enroll their children in the program.
The Treasury Department announced it would investigate whether any of the alleged fraudsters, many of whom are of Somali descent, funnelled money to al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab, which is based in Somalia. Multiple federal investigators told CBS News there is no evidence taxpayer dollars ever went to al Shabaab, and prosecutors have yet to present evidence linking any of the fraudsters to terrorism.
“The vast majority of the money that these folks made went to spending on luxury items for themselves,” said Andy Luger, the former U.S. Attorney who prosecuted these frauds from 2022 until January.
CBS News obtained dozens of files and photos that reveal how some Minnesota fraudsters blew through millions in taxpayer dollars, spending it on cars, property, jewelry and luxury travel. Videos show them popping champagne at an opulent Maldives resort. In a text message, one defendant boasts: “You are gonna be the richest 25 year old InshaAllah [God willing].”
