When it comes to fraud, the recent election results may have left more than a few Minnesotans scratching their heads — especially since many incumbents who were in office while fraud was running rampant have been reelected.
But while the elections have come and gone, the fight against fraud continues in Minnesota, as Colin McDonald, the assistant attorney general for the National Fraud Enforcement Division, explained to Liz Collin on her podcast.
WATCH:
McDonald spoke about his recent trip to St. Cloud, where the National Fraud Enforcement Division announced more raids and arrests related to fraud, and the ongoing efforts toward investigation, prosecution, and accountability.
The National Fraud Enforcement Division has been up and running for a little more than 200 days.
As McDonald pointed out, however, “In the last about 115 days, there’s been around 990 months of cumulative sentences handed out to 13 fraudsters in Minnesota from cases that the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Fraud Division have been working on for some time.”
“We are also building our apparatus of fraud prosecutors and agents to ensure that we are bringing accountability to the full field of culpable criminal actors there in Minnesota,” McDonald said.
He said that “folks in Minnesota have been tracking this for longer than the rest of the country, and so we’ve sort of been catching up to all of the fraud that has gone on there.”
“What’s clear is that in these programs that are state-administered, that it was a runaway train for a number of years where the apparent sole object was to shovel money out the door as quickly as possible,” McDonald said.
He also talked about how Minnesota was “ground zero” for fraud in America, as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said during their recent trip to St. Cloud.
“Minnesota, it is, in the secretary’s words, appropriate to call it ground zero in terms of the dilution of the security protocols associated with these programs and the mad dash free-for-all for fraudsters to take the taxpayer dollars straight out of the taxpayers’ pocket,” McDonald said.
“That is reality … and we are working earnestly to try to bring some sense and appropriate dosage of justice to those responsible,” he added.
Secretary Bessent said that outgoing Gov. Tim Walz “perhaps knowingly” allowed the fraud to fester.
During the interview, Collin asked a question that many people in the Alpha News audience have been asking for years: will elected officials ever be held accountable?
In response, McDonald told Collin that “Under President Trump and Vice President Vance’s leadership, they have commissioned us to ensure that we are leaving no stone unturned with the fraud that has occurred.”
“Our obligation to the public, as good public servants, is to unearth the facts … apply the facts to the law, and determine who is within the chain of criminal culpability, and then — without fear or favor — bring cases against those within that chain of criminal culpability,” McDonald said.
“As we do in the Department of Justice across the country, we are doing the same thing in Minnesota to make sure that we ferret out the facts,” he added.
New whistleblower program has already generated thousands of fraud tips
The Trump administration has said that since January 2025, more than $260 billion in fraud has been uncovered across the country. But despite the rampant fraud, McDonald spoke about how new investigative tools are necessary, such as the new whistleblower incentive program that offers up to a $30,000 reward for reporting fraud.
“If we just do the same thing, we’re fooling ourselves if we think we’re going to reach new results. So new results require new approaches so I would describe the whistleblower program kicked off a couple weeks ago by the president as one of those new tools that we’re looking to deploy,” McDonald explained.
“The whistleblower program is one example of our efforts to change the trajectory — the truly shocking trajectory of fraud,” he continued. “We’ve gotta do something new. We can’t just keep doing the old thing.”
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary "The Fall of Minneapolis" and "Minnesota v We the People."
