6 More Fraud Suspects Indicted in Minnesota, as $18 Billion in Medicaid Billing Is Reviewed

The U.S. attorney's office gave an update on the scale of fraud in the North Star State—now a 'fraud tourism' destination, the first assistant attorney said.

Janice Hisle

Published: 12/18/2025, 4:37:32 PM EST

6 More Fraud Suspects Indicted in Minnesota, as $18 Billion in Medicaid Billing Is Reviewed — Joseph Thompson, then an acting U.S. attorney, speaks at a news conference at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn., on June 16, 2025. (George Walker IV/The Associated Press)

U.S. First Assistant Attorney Joe Thompson announced indictments against a half-dozen new suspects in a pair of recently identified welfare fraud schemes.

Speaking at a news conference in Minnesota on Dec. 18, Thompson said investigators are working “around the clock” to dig into “staggering, industrial-scale fraud.”

Five more people have been charged in a “Housing Stabilization Services” program; a couple of those suspects had no connection to Minnesota but came to the state after hearing that “easy money” could be made through that program, Thompson said.

That so-called “fraud tourism” is a new phenomenon among the Minnesota fraud cases, he said, although prosecutors have heard of it occurring elsewhere.

It’s a shorthand way of explaining that fraud potential, not tourist attractions, motivated suspects to travel to new destinations.

A sixth person was charged in a separate case, dealing with fraudulently claiming to provide services to children with autism.

The housing and autism services deceptions both broke in Minneapolis in September, in the midst of a $240 million to $250 million racket involving a nonprofit called “Feeding Our Future.”

Since the initial charges broke in 2022, 78 people have been charged in that case, and dozens have been convicted.

Meanwhile, authorities executed a search warrant related to fraudulent Medicaid billing, and Medicaid officials are examining $18 billion worth of claims dating to 2018 for 14 services flagged for “significant fraud problems,” he said.

“How much was fraud? The answer is: Far too much. The magnitude of the fraud in Minnesota cannot be overstated,” Thompson said. “Every day we look under a rock and find … a new $50 million fraud scheme.”

The new charges follow a string of significant developments related to the fraud cases—all within the past few days.

On Dec. 12, Gov. Tim Walz appointed an anti-fraud “czar.”

On Dec. 15, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called for Walz’s resignation over alleged failure to clamp down on fraud in his state, which she says included $12.5 million in government loans to nearly 2,000 “ghost students” who never attended college.

That same day, the U.S. Labor Department announced it was sending a “strike team” to investigate whether unemployment compensation was being abused in Minnesota.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

From The Epoch Times