Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is facing a political firestorm of his own making after hundreds of employees from the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) publicly accused him of enabling—and then covering up—the largest COVID-era fraud scandal in the entire country. The whistleblowers, representing more than 480 DHS staffers, called out Walz directly for presiding over “massive fraud” and retaliating against those who tried to sound the alarm.
The scandal in question is the now-infamous Feeding Our Future scheme, in which over $1 billion in taxpayer money was siphoned away by fraudsters who exploited Minnesota’s expansive social services system. Federal prosecutors say at least 78 defendants have been charged so far, with 59 convicted, and the total damage continues to grow.
Yet according to the people inside the agency, much of this could have been stopped—if the governor had listened.
“Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota,” the DHS employees’ X account declared in a blistering statement Saturday. “We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud—but no, we got the opposite response.”
The employees say Walz’s administration didn’t just ignore warnings—it actively buried them. “He systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports,” the workers wrote. “Instead of partnership, we got the full weight of retaliation. It’s scary, isolating, and left us wondering who we can turn to.”
Feeding Our Future—founded to help feed low-income children—became a cash-dispensing machine for dozens of scammers, many within Minnesota’s large Somali diaspora. Fraudsters set up shell companies, filed claims for meals never served, then spent tens of millions on luxury cars, foreign real estate, and lavish lifestyles. The nonprofit dissolved in 2022, but not before draining well over a billion dollars in taxpayer funds.
Another welfare program meant to support the homeless grew from $2.6 million in 2021 to $104 million last year, fueled by rampant fraud, according to the New York Times.
DHS workers say they saw it all happening in real time: “As staff, we firsthand witnessed and observed fraud happening, yet we were shut down, reassigned, and told to keep quiet.”
The reason? According to the whistleblowers, Walz’s political appointees were terrified of appearing “discriminatory” by cracking down on certain communities heavily involved in the scheme. In other words, identity politics took priority over protecting taxpayers.
Even worse, DHS workers say Walz weakened safeguards, sidelined the Office of the Legislative Auditor, and allowed agency leaders to “willfully disregard rules and laws” to suppress fraud reports—including allegedly threatening the families of whistleblowers.
The fallout has been severe. Minnesota’s own House Majority Whip, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), summed up the disgust:
“Minnesota has become the land of 10,000 frauds under Tim Walz.”
“This is a total slap in the face to the hardworking, law-abiding people of Minnesota,” Emmer added. “The Walz administration is either too incompetent or completely unwilling to clean up their own mess.”
President Trump echoed the sentiment, blasting Minnesota under Walz as “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”
Walz, meanwhile, has attempted to deflect blame. In an interview Sunday, he claimed credit for “putting people in jail,” despite the fact that federal—not state—prosecutors handled nearly every aspect of the case. He then pivoted to attacking Trump, saying, “There’s a big difference between fraud and corruption. And corruption is something he knows about.”
But the DHS workers weren’t buying it. “This is a cascade of systemic failures leading up to Tim Walz,” they said. “We can’t fight fraud in Minnesota alone—we’re appealing to the federal government. We need all the help we can get.”
Walz recently launched his bid for a rare third term, a move now overshadowed by a scandal that refuses to go away—and by the employees who refuse to be silenced.
