Pam Bondi dispatches federal prosecutors to Minnesota following Somali fraud allegations

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the Justice Department will send additional federal prosecutors to Minnesota amid an expanding fraud investigation tied to Somali-run nonprofit operations.

"The Department of Justice is dispatching a team of prosecutors to Minnesota to reinforce our U.S. Attorney’s Office and put the perpetrators of this widespread fraud behind bars," Bondi told Fox News.

Bondi vowed "severe consequences in Minnesota" and said the department stands "ready to deploy to any other state where similar fraud schemes are robbing American taxpayers."

A DOJ official told Fox News the department is already planning a similar surge of prosecutorial resources in other states.

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Bondi's remarks, first reported by the New York Post, come as the department continues a welfare fraud investigation that broke open under former Attorney General Merrick Garland.

In 2022, Garland announced the first wave of indictments in what he said was a $250 million scheme perpetrated by a Minnesota-based nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, which was found to have exploited taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs. Garland described it at the time as the "largest pandemic relief fraud to date." 

The DOJ under Bondi has continued to investigate and prosecute those involved with Feeding Our Future and tangential schemes involving alleged juror bribery and healthcare fraud. Bondi recently said the scale of the fraud is greater than previously known and that more criminal charges are coming, likely with the help of the additional prosecutors now set to work in the DOJ's Minnesota office.

To date, the department has charged 98 people in fraud-related cases in Minnesota and secured 64 convictions. The vast majority of defendants have been of Somali descent.

The Trump administration, including the White House, the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security, have targeted the roughly 100,000 Somalis in Minnesota as a community ripe for immigration enforcement and possible denaturalization. Critics say only a fraction have engaged in fraud and that President Donald Trump is spearheading a xenophobic campaign against upstanding Somali Americans.

Health and Human Services said this month that it froze billions of dollars in federal funding for childcare programs and other social services in five Democrat-led states, including Minnesota, while it investigates their use of taxpayer dollars.

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A viral video posted by YouTube creator Nick Shirley in December amplified the attention on fraud in Minnesota. The video, showing Shirley visiting Somali-run daycare centers and finding that they were closed, has attracted millions of views on social media.

Some of the daycare centers have since disputed the suggestions in Shirley's video and said they have never committed fraud.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.