Mohamed Elshazli and Magda Elsagher told the state of Minnesota they had $200 to their name and one car.
Investigators later found 17 vehicles registered to the couple, $2.2 million wired overseas, and $50,000 dropped at a single jewelry store. Over seven years and continual recertifications, the Anoka County family collected more than $860,000 in medical assistance and food stamp benefits, all built on a lie that never should have worked.
Here’s the part that should really bother you: they didn’t even need to lie. Under Minnesota’s own rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), they could have told the truth about their fleet of vehicles and bank accounts and kept right on collecting food stamp benefits. Minnesota doesn’t restrict SNAP benefits to the needy. A millionaire with a garage full of Lamborghinis can qualify for food stamps in this state, legally. The Anoka County couple didn’t slip through a crack in the system; they walked through a door Minnesota left wide open.
This is not an isolated glitch. It’s a pattern.
Every time Washington and St. Paul have expanded SNAP in a hurry, oversight has been left behind to catch up on its own time. During the Obama administration, in the years following the Great Recession, SNAP participation jumped nearly 60 percent nationally while costs rose almost 90 percent. Then COVID hit, and it happened again: enrollment grew by about 20 percent, but thanks to a 2021 rewrite of the benefits formula, costs surged another 90 percent. The result is a program that has ballooned from roughly $38 billion a year in 2008 to about $100 billion by the end of 2024.
SNAP benefits are funded entirely by federal taxpayers but administered by the states — in Minnesota’s case, by counties. That arrangement means the people spending the money aren’t the ones paying for it, and Minnesota’s own numbers show what happens next: our payment error rate has doubled since before the Great Recession, and nearly 80 percent of those errors are overpayments, not underpayments. Not paperwork typos in the state’s favor; money going out the door that shouldn’t be.
To deal with sky-high error rates nationwide, Congress changed the law last year to require states with error rates of 6 percent or higher to start sharing the cost of SNAP benefits instead of sending federal taxpayers the bill. Minnesota’s error rate clears that bar easily. And what’s more, it’s gotten much worse (40% higher) in the past year, even with state leaders knowing that a bill was coming due if we didn’t get our house in order.
The result is that Minnesota taxpayers now need to fund $130 million in new state spending starting next year.
How did we get here? Minnesota did this to itself.
Back in 2007, Minnesota adopted a policy called Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE). It’s a loophole that lets states waive SNAP’s federal income and asset limits, and it’s the reason a household can own a small fleet of luxury cars and still qualify for benefits.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has warned that BBCE can weaken program integrity. In a 2012 report, GAO found that SNAP households eligible under BBCE whose incomes exceeded federal limits had payment errors at a rate of 17.2 percent, compared with 6.7 percent among other SNAP households. In fact, as of 2025, states that have adopted BBCE have payment error rates that are almost 50% higher than non-BBCE states.
Further, GAO also found that caseworkers in states examined believed reduced verification under BBCE could increase the potential for errors and fraud. Minnesota’s 2007 decision to waive asset testing and allow for self-attestation of financial information meant that the safeguards against an Anoka County-style case became weaker.
Fixing this problem does not mean taking food away from families who genuinely need help. Closing the BBCE loophole will not reduce monthly SNAP benefit payment amounts for those who qualify under the federal rules.
The problem isn’t the existence of a safety net; it’s a set of policy choices that told SNAP caseworkers to stop asking basic questions about whether applicants actually need assistance. A program with guardrails removed is not only irresponsible, it undermines the social trust that undergirds American generosity. SNAP in Minnesota is designed to be gamed, and state leaders should take their responsibility to protect the public’s trust seriously. Instead, they are hiding the ball from federal oversight.
Every dollar that goes to a household with 17 vehicles and a Rolex habit is a dollar that isn’t going to a mom trying to feed her kids, and it’s a dollar that isn’t staying in your paycheck either. Minnesotans deserve a SNAP program that works for the people who actually need it, not one that quietly rewards the people who game it.
Minnesota built this loophole in 2007. Nothing requires the state to keep it.
Zach Freimark serves as the Executive Director of America First Minnesota. Matthew Schmid serves as the Public Affairs Director of Rural America and Security at the America First Policy Institute.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not represent an official position of Alpha News.
Zach Freimark
Zach Freimark serves as executive director of the America First Policy Institute's Minnesota state chapter.
Matthew Schmid
Matthew Schmid serves as the Public Affairs Director of Rural America and Security at the America First Policy Institute.
