WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Friday that his department is tightening international bank-reporting rules for two Minnesota counties to fight what he called “egregious, unchecked fraud” involving ill-gotten government benefits flowing to Somalia and other countries.
The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) will now require banks and other financial institutions in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties — which encompass Minneapolis and St. Paul — to report overseas transfers exceeding $3,000, down from the standard $10,000 reporting limit.
“This will put a microscope on these businesses, advance prosecutions and assist in the recovery of funds laundered internationally,” Bessent said during a visit to the Gopher State.
“Fraudsters in Minnesota stole at least $300 million meant for children in need. We must prevent fraud of this scale from occurring in the future.”
The Treasury secretary added that “Minnesota is going to be the genesis for a national rollout” for tracking fraud — noting a similar mechanism was used along the southern border to trace Mexican drug cartel funds.
Bessent blamed the situation on “the incompetence and recalcitrance of Governor [Tim] Walz.”
Other federal agencies have poured resources into Minnesota after the fraud scandal was highlighted by President Trump — with the Justice Department surging prosecutors and the Department of Homeland Security boosting immigration raids.
Vice President JD Vance announced Thursday that the Justice Department is creating a new assistant attorney general role to focus on fraud and the Department of Health and Human Services this week froze funding for social services in Minnesota and four other Democrat-led states pending review.
Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2024, and his defenders point out that investigations of Somali-American fraud impacting federal benefits began during the Biden administration.
The Biden Justice Department in September 2022 began issuing indictments against conspirators in the $250 million Feeding Our Future ripoff — in which primarily Somali-American fraudsters took federal funds to operate non-existent child nutrition programs.
A 78th defendant in the Feeding Our Future case was indicted in late November — after at least 56 others pleaded guilty.
Attention is now being paid to Somali-American-run daycare centers that purported to be providing services eligible for taxpayer funds, including to children suffering from autism. Such cases have been prosecuted intermittently since the start of Trump’s first term in 2017.
Trump has heightened national attention on Minnesota fraud — prompting Walz to end his re-election bid Monday.
“Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars — billions. Every year, billions of dollars and they contribute nothing. The welfare is like 88%. They contribute nothing,” the president said at a Dec. 2 Cabinet meeting.
“I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you, OK? Somebody would say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks and we don’t want them in our country.”
