The state of Minnesota appears to be engulfed in fraud, but everyone is now concentrating on the fact that Donald Trump called Gov. Tim Walz “retarded” rather than focusing on the actual problem.
This all started when a $250 million fraud scheme was in the process of being prosecuted, a case that involved a scenario dating back to COVID-19 relief funding.
Then we found out that the fraud was actually more in the neighborhood of $1 billion, with more than 70 people having been charged overall. Yet, in an associated $7.2 million fraud case, a judge just overturned a hefty verdict, and Republicans are about to lose their minds.
In February, it was reported that a Minnesota woman, Najmo M. Ahmed, pleaded guilty to illegally tapping into a federally funded program during the pandemic to help feed children.
The IRS press release on the matter stated, “According to court documents, Najmo M. Ahmed helped her husband Said Ereg run a small storefront grocery store in Minneapolis called Evergreen Grocery and Deli. In April 2020, Ereg enrolled Evergreen Grocery and Deli in the Federal Child Nutrition Program as a food distribution site under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future.”
It continued, “Under the direction of her husband, Ahmed signed falsified meal count sheets, including one dated Dec. 31, 2020, claiming Evergreen Grocery and Deli served 3,250 children -- twice a day -- during the week of Jan. 24, 2021. Between April 2020 and April 2021, Evergreen Grocery and Deli claimed to have served over 1.4 million meals to children.”
Instead of the money actually going to feed children, Ahmed was buying fancy clothes and living the dream life.
As more and more of these reports surfaced, it was revealed that there was roughly $1 billion in fraud committed under Walz's watch.
House Oversight Committee chair James Comer recently stated, "Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was warned about massive fraud in a pandemic food-aid program for children, yet he failed to act.”
He continued, “Instead, whistleblowers who raised concerns faced retaliation. Because of Governor Walz’s negligence, criminals -- including Somali terrorists -- stole nearly $1 billion from the program while children suffered. The House Oversight Committee will conduct a thorough investigation into Governor Walz’s failure to safeguard taxpayer dollars."
Walz is now deflecting the blame, playing victim amid Trump’s silly name-calling and trying to take credit for arrests made after the fact.
That brings us to Judge Sarah West, who just overturned a fraud conviction related to the scandal in a case involving $7.2 million. Abdifatah Yusuf and his wife, Lul Ahmed, allegedly stole from the state’s Medicaid program with their home healthcare business.
Yusuf was accused of billing the program for services that were never rendered and using the money to live like a rock star. He had moved over $1 million from his business account to his personal account and withdrew more than $387,000 in cash. A jury convicted Yusuf on six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindling.
Judge West overturned the verdict, stating that prosecutors "relied heavily on circumstantial evidence," adding that the state didn't rule out other potential "reasonable inferences." Then she dared to say that she was "troubled by the manner in which fraud was able to be perpetuated at Promise Health."
Republican Minnesota Sen. Michael Holmstrom went ballistic, stating, "Judicial reform is necessary in Minnesota… This wasn't an extreme situation. This is just how she operates. I think that she is a true extremist, that her ideology is running her courtroom and damaging our justice system. People in Minnesota are questioning whether or not the judicial system can be trusted. And with judges like this, I see why.”
People are tried and convicted on circumstantial evidence all the time, as long as it can be reasonably linked to the defendant. The fact that the judge even admitted that fraud took place, then reversed the ruling, just shows how much of a problem we have in our judiciary with activists sitting on the bench.
