The ongoing investigations into fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community have another chilling angle: possible ties to jihad.
President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy aims to move beyond the days when the Middle East dominated foreign policy. But Minnesota’s welfare fraud schemes are a warning sign. Closing the door on the ideology of radical Islam – and its greedy tentacles here in America – may be more difficult than it seems.
EXPERT REVEALS THE KEY FACTOR THAT LED TO MAJOR FRAUD PROGRAM IN MINNESOTA
Treasury Secretary Scott BessentScott Bessent was concerned enough to launch an investigation into whether money had been transferred from Minnesota to the notorious jihadist group al-Shabaab in Somalia.
“A lot of money has been transferred from the individuals who committed this fraud,” Bessent told Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” earlier this month. Much of that money “has gone abroad, and we are following that both to the Middle East and to Somalia to see what the use of that has been,” he said.
The main motive, of course, was “pure, outright greed,” as U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel said in her Aug. 6 sentencing of Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, who was convicted of a $250 million fraud scheme that abused a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic. The question, however, is whether the enormous volume of money transfers to Somalia has directly or indirectly benefited terrorist networks.
TRUMP REWRITE NATIONAL SECURITY PLAYBOOK AS MASS MIGRATION OVERTAGS TERRORISM AS BIGGEST THREAT TO US
Money transfers are targeted. Somalia’s GDP was only $12 billion in 2024. Cash flows from the US to Somalia totaled about $215 million last year. ISIS in Somalia runs a Hawala digital network that funds operations across Africa to finance terrorism, according to an Oct. 7 report from the Africa Defense Forum.
Americans are not the only ones dealing with fraud, suspicious money flows and concerns about ties to terrorists.
On November 24, the Swedish newspaper Expressen reported that more than $100 million in Swedish tax kroner intended for kindergartens and schools in Sweden was instead siphoned off by an Islamist network carrying out a social security fraud. According to Expressen, it is a network united by common family ties, criminal cases and welfare crimes. Swedish police have also arrested several people linked to radical and violent extremism in an apartment north of Stockholm. Expressen concluded that two networks were involved in pure, large-scale welfare crime for significant amounts of money.
HOW MISREADING SOMALIA POVERTY LEAD MINNESOTA INTO ITS BIGGEST WELFARE SCANDAL
“The money disappears and does not fulfill its social purpose, while others become rich by appropriating public resources,” Henric Fagher, chief prosecutor of the Gothenburg Economic Crime Authority, told the Swedish news site.
In addition to the aversion to large-scale fraud, concerns remain about terrorist recruitment and radicalization. In one known case, thirty ISIS fighters traveled from Gothenburg to Syria in 2013. Ultimately, 300 Swedes joined jihadist groups, according to The Guardian, making Sweden second only to Belgium as a source of recruitment. In 2023, 24 ex-ISIS fighters were found to be working as government employees in Sweden.
Americans have reason to worry. A year ago, 23-year-old Abdisatar Ahmed Hassan tried twice to leave Minnesota to join ISIS in the Islamic State of Somalia. He was arrested on September 29 and found guilty of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Millions of dollars in welfare fraud happening alongside known cases of ISIS radicalization is downright frightening. “There is no room for error when it comes to terrorism,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said in a statement.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS ADVICE
Finally, the Somalia fraud schemes are yet another reminder that overall U.S. refugee and asylum policies need to be reexamined. There was a time when asylum policy reflected U.S. national interests, such as hosting those fleeing the Soviet Union. Asylum policy became adrift after the Cold War.
As the new National Security Strategy says, “who a country admits to its borders – in what numbers and from where – will inevitably determine that country’s future.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The tragic shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, DC, the day before Thanksgiving, should have been warning enough.
Allowing refugee flows is not a sustainable policy.
CLICK HERE TO REBECCA GRANT
