In what officials termed as the largest misuse of taxpayer funds in U.S. history, Somali refugees in Minnesota have been implicated in a massive fraud scheme. The White House accused local Democratic leaders of being “fully complicit” in this scandal. This week, federal authorities revealed that a group of at least 86 individuals, primarily from Minnesota’s Somali communities, allegedly siphoned off over $1 billion intended for programs aiding children, the homeless, and autism therapy. The suspects are said to have operated businesses that fraudulently billed the state for millions of dollars in non-existent social services through three distinct fraudulent schemes.

Connections have emerged linking Minnesota political figures, including Representative Ilhan Omar and Governor Tim Walz, to some of those charged. Both were photographed with Abdul Dahir Ibrahi, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday. Ibrahi had a prior conviction in Canada for fraud related to asylum and welfare, as reported by Fox News.

Stephen Miller, U.S. Homeland Security Advisor, stated that authorities suspect state government involvement in the scheme, suggesting that the findings will be startling to Americans. He emphasized that evidence gathered by federal prosecutors points to this operation as the largest case of welfare fraud in U.S. history, describing it as the “single greatest theft of taxpayer dollars” perpetrated by Somali fraudsters in Minnesota.

‘We believe that we’ve only scratched the very top of the surface of how deep this goes,’ Miller told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Friday night, as the Trump administration probes whether the millions of dollars that were fraudulently obtained were funneled to terrorist organizations, including Somalia-based Al-Shabaab. ‘The total tab for this is going to be far beyond the numbers we’ve already seen reported,’ which show that 75 percent of the Somali population in Minnesota is on welfare. ‘That’s likely a significant undercount of just how much of a financial burden the Somali refugee population is imposing on this country,’ Miller noted.

After the massive scandal came to light, President Trump announced he was ending Temporary Protected Status for Somalis – which led to Ibrahim’s arrest on Friday. Authorities have said he entered the United States through the Canadian border in 1995. Seven years later, Ibrahim was arrested for providing false information to police and driving without a valid license, a crime for which he was fined and sentenced to one year of probation. In the years since, Ibrahim – who was also once pictured with former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh – has accumulated a dozen traffic or parking tickets as he repeatedly applied for asylum.

In one his applications, the fraudster claimed his sister and her five children to be his spouse and his own kids. But a judge cited Ibrahim’s ‘complete lack of credibility’ in rejecting the petition, according to the New York Post. Ibrahim also reportedly had deportation orders against him since 2004, but was still granted temporary protected status – which provided him with deportation protections for 10 years. In announcing his arrest on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security noted that Ibrahim ‘has been linked to Minnesota’s top sanctuary politicians.’

‘Bye-bye, Abdul.’ But Ibrahim is not the only alleged fraudster Omar is said to have connections with, as authorities were able to secure a conviction against 33-year-old Salim Ahmed Said, the owner of Safari Restaurant, where the woke congresswoman held her 2018 victory party. Prosecutors have said Said pocketed $5 million by claiming to serve tens of thousands of meals to low-income children during the pandemic through the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Most of those meals never actually existed, authorities say, and the Safari restaurant allegedly received more than $16 million in funds in ‘phantom meals.’

Said then used the money to enrich himself, with a $2 million mansion in Minneapolis and a $9,000-a-month shopping habit at Nordstrom, prosecutors claim. Additionally, Omar campaign staffer Guhaad Hashi Said claimed he served 5,000 meals every day under fake food site Advance Youth Athletic Development, but was taking millions into his own coffers. He pleaded guilty to his fraud in August 2025. He worked on Omar’s 2018 and 2020 campaign as an ‘enforcer’ overseeing an aggressive voter mobilization strategy in the Somali community in Minneapolis. Guhaad Said and Omar often attended the same events, according to Facebook photos of the pair together, including smiling selfies.

Some who donated to Omar’s campaign even received fraudulent money from the food charity scam. The congresswoman received $7,400 in donations from now-convicted fraudsters. When the scandal broke in 2022, she returned those contributions. The restaurant owner is now facing decades in prison, as questions swirl about Omar’s involvement. She has maintained she was completely unaware of the illegal activity and is not accused of any wrongdoing, even though she introduced the 2020 MEALS Act bill that made the $250 million fraud scheme.

Meanwhile, Walz has defended what has gone on by saying his administration erred on the side of generosity during the pandemic and prioritized getting money out to people as quickly as possible. ‘The programs are set up to move the money to people,’ Walz told The Times. ‘The programs are set up to improve people’s lives, and in many cases, the criminals find the loopholes.’ Walz, who is seeking a third term as governor next year, has created a new task force to diagnose and root out fraud. He also plans to use AI tools to more easily find suspicious transactions at the governmental level.

‘The message here in Minnesota,’ Walz said, ‘is if you commit a crime, if you commit fraud against public dollars, you are going to go to prison.’ Still, President Donald Trump has derided Walz for allowing Minnesota to become ‘a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.’ He said the perpetrators should be ‘sent back to where they came from.’ Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also hit out at the governor at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. ‘You told me to look into Minnesota and their fraud on visas and their programs,’ she told Trump, before declaring that half ‘are fraudulent, which means that that wacko Governor Walz either is an idiot or he did it on purpose — and I think he’s both.’

Critics of the one-time vice presidential candidate have argued that a key reason the fraud wasn’t stopped was due to a reluctance from civil servants to go after the criminals due to their race, and being fearful of alienating the Somali community, according to the New York Times. In 2020, Minnesota Department of Education officials were drowning in a flood of applications for new pandemic feeding sites. As the number of providers exploded and invoices skyrocketed, staff started questioning the authenticity of invoices for meals that supposedly went to tens of thousands of children.

Feeding Our Future, the largest nonprofit participating in the program, warned that if the state didn’t fast-track approvals for ‘minority-owned businesses,’ it would face a lawsuit accusing officials of racism. The state wound up backing down, but Feeding Our Future filed suit anyway, and despite mounting red flags, the agency kept approving feeding sites and reimbursing claims for months afterward. The Daily Mail has reached out to Walz’s office for comment. A spokesperson for Omar’s office declined to comment.