At his December 18 press conference, First Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson announced charges against six defendants in cases arising from fraud on Minnesota’s 14 “waivered” Medicaid programs. He estimated that half of the $18 billion spent on these programs since 2018 may amount to fraudulent claims.
Based on the evidence compiled to date in his investigation, he obviously thinks that fraud permeates these programs. The programs have experienced explosive and unanticipated growth since their creation. If you have been following our coverage of the massive public-programs fraud committed by a large cast of almost exclusively Somali perpetrators under the averted gaze of Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison and missed video of the historic December press conference, you may want to take it in (video at the bottom).
The Department of Justice posted a detailed press release covering the December 18 press conference. Two of the defendants charged in cases announed that day were implicated in “Fraud Tourism.” Word that the getting was good had reached all the way to Philadelphia, but supposedly not to the offices of Walz or Ellison in St. Paul.
More indictments in these cases are expected next week. Yesterday, in the meantime, the Minnesota Department of Human Services announced a six-month suspension of enrollment of new providers in the 13 remaining “waivered” programs (more here).
Walz axed the fourteenth — the Housing Stablization Services program — in October the month after Thompson had announced the first indictments for defauding that program. The program was riddled with fraud, but it all came as news to Walz.
And yet Walz has taken time out from his busy schedule to call for the sacking of an unnamed United States Attorney for daring to share Thompson’s assessment of the evidence compiled to date. One might infer that it’s time — way past time — for Walz to sack himself.
