A former special agent and fraud investigator in Minnesota who saw the warning signs is sharing his story. It’s an inside perspective on the political moves and lack of accountability that made a big problem even worse.
Joe Boche served as a special agent with the Minnesota Commerce Fraud Bureau before his retirement just last year.
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Boche has an extensive resume investigating white-collar crime, including insurance and investment fraud, mortgage and real estate scams, and much more. He’s also worked as a police officer, prosecuting attorney and a college professor.
Boche joined Liz Collin on her podcast. When she asked if he was surprised by all of the fraud finally coming to light in Minnesota, Boche replied matter of factly: “No, not at all.”
“Going back to 2014, 2015, we were working on transportation fraud cases, which have the same template as much of the fraud that you’re hearing about today,” he said.
Questionable move by Gov. Tim Walz?
The Commerce Fraud Bureau was moved from the Department of Commerce to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) in 2025. When it happened, it was sold as a way to make a stronger fraud unit. Boche believes there was more to the story.
“It came as a complete surprise to not just myself, but all of the staff at the Commerce Fraud Bureau, including our chief. And, you know, a five-week timeline for a merger of two law enforcement agencies, I guess I haven’t heard of anything like that before.
“It just came across as more of a power grab than a sincere effort to merge it and to do a better job for Minnesotans,” Boche said.
He also described the issues he discovered with the state’s policies and its “poor” oversight of grantees.
“And then when I did get into the state’s policies, there were some things, especially given my background of looking at how easily fraud can be committed, especially if there’s a lack of oversight, some huge red flags that concerned me,” he added.
Boche was concerned, as he said, “They’re dealing with millions and millions of dollars. And the emphasis from the state is about giving money out, not accountability.”
“The state’s current policy still has some stuff in it that’s really concerning … not even requiring the grantees to produce those receipts for you until you call and schedule a meeting with them. And then their policy is to give them ample notice to prepare for the meeting. That bothered me. It bothered me a lot. And to the point where I was in some trainings with the Office of Grant Management, I brought up some concerns because when it was first mentioned to me, I went, ‘Is this really the policy?’ I was shocked to see that.”
Boche said his concerns were never addressed.
“We were like, ‘Why don’t we talk about this so that we’re not embarrassed by fraud?’ And we got responses of, ‘Well, I don’t think anybody would try to do that.’ So here we are.”
Boche explained how the state seemed more focused on DEI than fiscal accountability when giving out grants.
“Around 2021, ’22, the focus changed almost entirely to diversity and inclusion in grants,” he said.
Boche recalled one particular meeting on auto thefts in Minneapolis. The meeting was held with some members of Gov. Walz’s staff.
“So I go into this meeting and the meeting was myself, my chief, and some people from the governor’s staff. It became very apparent really quickly that they just wanted me to give money away,” Boche recalled. “And then once they realized I wasn’t gonna back down, the phone call ended.”
Boche said he has some skepticism that there will be true accountability because the state “did some pretty underhanded things” while he was an employee.
“There were investigations that were shut down that gave me pause and gave people pause to look and go, ‘This is a good fraud case and we’re just being told by our bosses for inexplicable reasons like we’re not going to be pursuing this one anymore,'” he said.
“So I think the partisan politics is huge. I think the idea that the AG’s office can do investigations, that’s obviously partisan. The BCA is partisan,” he said. “So something more collaborative needs to be done to look into this.”
Boche said a cancer diagnosis forced him into a medical retirement, but he wanted to speak out since others seemingly cannot.
“The friends of mine that work in law enforcement in different positions now, they’re scared to talk. Aside from the fact that if you’re a state employee, you’re prohibited from talking,” Boche said. “They control what you can say, and retaliation and concern about that is very real. I don’t really have anything left to lose. It’s the right thing to do for the right reason.”
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."
