A Minnesota senator is renewing his calls for establishing a statewide Office of Inspector General following allegations of fraud in another state program.
As Alpha News first reported, a search warrant was served at several locations Wednesday morning related to a “massive scheme to defraud” Medicaid and Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program. That program, the search warrant says, has “proved to be extremely vulnerable to fraud.”
“Minnesota has a fraud problem—and not a small one,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson. “For too long, organized fraud schemes like this have flourished in plain sight, draining public resources dry. Today’s warrants are another step in a much bigger reckoning. This state needs to confront the scale of its fraud problem—because ignoring it is no longer an option.”
Sen. Michael Kreun, R-Blaine, agrees, saying the state “must do more across every agency and department to prevent fraud before it starts.”
“Accountability starts at the top and these headlines will keep coming until Governor Walz ends his opposition to the bipartisan proposal for an independent Office of Inspector General,” he added.
Kreun is a co-author of a bipartisan bill to create an independent Office of Inspector General tasked with identifying and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse in state programs. The bill passed the Senate last session with strong bipartisan support, 60-7, but stalled in the Minnesota House.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
