The Star Tribune has just published a story purporting to explain “what to know about Minnesota’s fraud crisis.” Among other things, the story argues with the United States Attorney for Minnesota and with President Trump about the magnitude of the losses in the massive public-programs fraud committed by a large cast of almost exclusively Somali perpetrators.
The story takes up the issue of immigration in an egregious fashion. This is how the story addresses the overwhelmingly Somali cast of defendants: “While many of the defendants in the Feeding Our Future scheme and growing Medicaid fraud are of East African descent, Bock, the leader of Feeding Our Future, is a white woman.”
I would put it this way. Appromately 90 percent of the defendants charged and convicted so far are Somali. According to First Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson, the cast of characters in the uncharged cases under investigation mirrors what we have seen so far.
It’s a long story that touches on several issues, but it somehow fails to mention that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison caved in to the claims alleged by Feeding Our Future against the Minnesota Department of Education and therefore kept the funds flowing in 2021 while another $100 million rolled out the door. It also fails to mention that Walz and the Star Tribune falsely blamed Ramsey Country District Judge John Guthman with ordering the Department of Education to keep the money rolling out the door to Feeding Our Future and its affiliated fraudsters.
Judge Guthmann responded with this public statement when the first federal indictments were handed up in September 2022. Judge Guthmann rightly blasted Walz and the Star Tribune.
This is not to say that the current Star Tribune story is all bad. The Star Tribune credits itself with various scoops that advanced the story. Maybe it should have found space to explain where it went wrong along the way.
The bylines of three reporters run on the story (Allison Kite, Jeffrey Meitrodt and Jessie Van Berkel). One other reporter (Sydney Kashiwagi) is credited with contributing to the story. Although Meitrodt chides me for having trouble with math, I believe that makes four. An editor or two must have had eyes on the story as well. Yet this is the story’s opening sentence: “President Donald Trump’s recent comments about fraud in Minnesota has given the issue national attention.” Below is a screenshot of the first paragraph.
