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Datum: 21. 05. 2026 22:27:15
The Department of Justice announced criminal charges against 15 defendants in Minnesota on Thursday, alleging schemes that targeted more than $90 million in taxpayer funds across state-managed Medicaid programs.
Colin McDonald, assistant attorney general for the DOJs National Fraud Enforcement Division, said the cases involve seven Minnesota-run Medicaid programs that prosecutors say were systematically pilfered by fraudsters who treated taxpayer-funded services as their personal piggy bank.
Let me be clear upfront about something: This is not the end of our work in Minnesota," McDonald said. "This is the beginning of our work in Minnesota. The fraud here in Minnesota is shocking.
McDonald pointed to Minnesotas housing stabilization services program, which was designed to help homeless residents find and keep housing, as one of the starkest examples. The program was initially estimated in 2020 to cost about $2.5 million per year, but ballooned to more than $104 million by 2024, which McDonald attributed to fraud.
One of the programs has been completely shut down because theres no money left: Its all gone, McDonald said, adding that the program was shut down in 2025 and these services no longer exist for these vulnerable homeless populations.
Prosecutors also cited what they described as suspicious growth in other taxpayer-funded programs, including an autism program that McDonald said rose from $600,000 in costs six years ago to more than $400 million.
That number is not driven by supply and demand, he said. It is not driven by healthcare or charity. It is fraud.
McDonald said the DOJ has surged 11 strike force prosecutors from across the country into Minnesota to help pursue the cases, calling the alleged fraud a crisis and signaling that more enforcement action is expected. |
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