Concerned residents have noticed a pattern in their neighborhood and are speaking out on what they believe is more potential fraud.
Anthony Sinople, who joined Liz Collin on her podcast, is a Maple Grove resident who lives in the Evanswood neighborhood. It’s advertised as more than 225 single-family homes on more than 180 acres, and home prices range from $600,000 to more than $1 million.
Sinople and several others in Evanswood who reached out to Alpha News are concerned about ties to potential fraud. They say there are dozens of businesses—from group homes to daycares to foster homes—that can be traced to Somali homeowners.
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“I was the first resident inside the community in August of 2023. And you know, I noticed then there was a rapid development of homes being built. We had a number of East African households that were purchasing homes and I started to see things where contractors were coming in to knock down walls and these commercial grade water filtration systems were being installed in homes. And there were a lot of irregularities … within these new custom-built homes,” Sinople said.
“I started to get a bit suspicious … noticing these very significant construction efforts going on,” he continued.
Sinople explained how he helped to throw multiple parties in the neighborhood and was amazed at how many people would open up about “what exactly was occurring” and how they “started to describe these plans.”
“This housing stabilization program, autism care, child care plans and how they would be able to make between $10,000 to $24,000 a month per person for setting up these group homes. Each one of these members were very proud of this. They saw that they were achieving the American dream, they saw themselves as being great entrepreneurs,” he said.
“Then I started to receive offers that if I would purchase homes in the community under my name, they would be sponsoring these types of housing stabilization programs at these houses,” Sinople added.
As a result, Sinople said he started to grow concerned and did some digging of his own.
“And I found that each one of these households was connected to a home health care LLC,” he said.
Despite the patterns and the concerns, Sinople says his calls for scrutiny and possible investigation have been ignored.
“I reached out to Gov. [Tim] Walz’s office on numerous occasions, left messages, never received a return call,” he said.
He explained how he “ended up contacting the state’s attorney, Keith Ellison’s office. I requested to speak to an attorney at the office, and was told that I could not speak to an attorney and that I should file it as a consumer complaint. And I did so. Never heard any feedback whatsoever.”
Sinople said his suspicions hit a new level when he watched Nick Shirley’s viral video months ago.
“We were complaining about this going all the way back to 2023 when we moved in the community. We made every possible administration official aware of what we were seeing,” he said, pointing out that all he and others wanted was for officials to “look at it, research it, and take a look at our case. But none of that happened.”
“We feel like there’s no leadership in Minnesota,” he added.
Sinople, who relocated from Boston, doesn’t believe this would have been overlooked for so long in other areas of the country.
“We still have wide open fraud in our community, kind of in our face,” he said.
“I think it’s a number of factors. There’s a propensity in the Minnesota culture to really not say anything, to kind of mind your own business, somebody else will take care of it, don’t worry about it, you know, to ignore it,” Sinople explained.
He also said that “the biggest thing that concerns me is a total and complete lack of accountability in Minnesota … You could steal 10, 15 million dollars and get six months of jail time and like a minimum security prison. So I think a lot of these perpetrators are not intimidated whatsoever by the legal system or the punitive system.”
After hearing Sinople and his neighbors voice their concerns, Alpha News asked the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) if it is investigating any suspected fraud in the Evanswood neighborhood.
“DHS is acting aggressively to detect and prevent fraud and will shut off money to providers when credible allegations of fraud come to light,” the agency said. “DHS strongly encourages anyone with information about suspected Medicaid fraud to contact DHS by calling 651-431-2650 (Toll-free: 1-800-657-3750) or by submitting a report online.”
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."
