Trump administration says it is freezing little one care funds to Minnesota after collection of fraud schemes | EUROtoday

President Donald Trump’s administration introduced on Tuesday that it’s freezing little one care funds to Minnesota after a collection of fraud schemes lately.

Acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Jim O’Neill introduced on the social platform X that the step is in response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”

“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” he stated.

O’Neill stated all funds by the Administration for Children and Families, an company throughout the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, would require “justification and a receipt or photo evidence” earlier than cash is distributed. They have additionally launched a fraud-reporting hotline and e-mail handle, he stated.

The announcement comes after years of investigation that started with the $300 million scheme on the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors stated the group was on the heart of the nation’s largest COVID-19-related fraud rip-off, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program meant to supply meals for kids.

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or extra of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 packages in Minnesota since 2018 could have been stolen. Most of the defendants are Somali Americans, they stated.

O’Neill additionally known as out a right-wing influencer who had posted a video Friday claiming he discovered that day care facilities operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had dedicated as much as $100 million in fraud. O’Neill stated he has demanded Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz submit an audit of those facilities that features attendance data, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has stated fraud won’t be tolerated and his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”

Walz has stated an audit due by late January ought to give a greater image of the extent of the fraud. He stated his administration is taking aggressive motion to stop extra fraud. He has lengthy defended how his administration responded.

Minnesota’s most distinguished Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, has urged folks to not blame a complete neighborhood for the actions of a relative few.