The Slow Poison of Fraud: How Minnesota’s Leaders Normalized Theft from the Vulnerable
By Phillip C. Parrish, Candidate for Governor of Minnesota
Today, I’m asking the people of Minnesota a hard question: Where does fraud start?
Are we all guilty? Does it creep in gradually? Why don’t we confront it—in ourselves or others? Do we just accept it as normal?
The truth is: yes, all people are guilty of some level of fraud. But it’s critical to define what fraud really is. In my experience, good people talk themselves into guilt over small things—using a coupon past its date, claiming a benefit they barely qualified for. That shame creates a blind spot. It numbs us to the blatant, premeditated, criminal fraud happening at the highest levels of our state government.
It’s one thing to temporarily benefit from a program you weren’t perfectly intended for.
It’s another to be the decision-makers and administrators who set up fake companies, bill for fake services, and send payments to fake people.
That’s not a mistake.
That’s criminal intent to defraud.
That’s racketeering.
That’s conspiracy.
And in Minnesota, the names at the center of this storm are Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, Tina Smith, and Amy Klobuchar—along with their extremely wealthy donors who have known all along.
They can feign ignorance.
They can make excuses.
They can blame “systemic issues.”
But patterns of behavior repeated over time is who they are.
This racketeering goes back even before I stepped up as one of the original whistleblowers in 2017, exposing the massive daycare fraud scandal that ripped off federal child care funds through sham providers and inflated enrollments. As a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer on my last set of active-duty orders, I had a front-row seat to the intelligence reports and patterns that revealed the full scope: the same money laundering schemes, hawala networks funneling cash overseas, and shell companies laundering taxpayer dollars that these leaders had been warned about years earlier. Tim Walz, then in the thick of his congressional oversight role; Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, as our U.S. Senators pushing federal aid bills; and Keith Ellison, climbing the ranks in state politics—they all had access to the briefings, the red flags, and the donor ties that blinded them to the truth. They played their parts, from lax federal funding streams to state-level inaction, enabling the fraud to fester long before it exploded into the open. I blew the whistle because I knew from my counterterrorism work that ignoring these patterns wasn’t oversight—it was complicity. And nothing has changed; the same playbook is still in use today.
They are criminal conspirators who have exploited the public with lies, propaganda, coercion, and emotionally abusive manipulation—for power and wealth.
Let me substantiate this with concrete examples. Let’s be clear about how serious this has become—and how much harm it has caused, and will continue to cause, unless we stop it.
1. Feeding Our Future: $250 Million Stolen from Hungry Children
This is the largest fraud in Minnesota history—and a direct echo of the daycare schemes I helped uncover in 2017.
A Somali restaurant in Minneapolis—Safari Restaurant—claimed to feed 4,000 to 6,000 children per day during the pandemic.
The FBI set up surveillance.
Over six weeks, they counted just 40 people entering the building.
They used online name-randomizer websites to generate fake rosters.
They submitted inflated invoices.
They pocketed $12 million—part of the $250 million stolen through the Feeding Our Future nonprofit network.
Aimee Bock, the executive director, and Salim Said, who ran multiple sham sites, created shell companies to launder funds. They bought luxury cars and real estate with money meant for school lunches.
This wasn’t incompetence.
This was organized crime—the very same racketeering I flagged years before.
Where were Walz and Ellison?
• The Minnesota Department of Education flagged “impossible” meal counts and reimbursement spikes as early as 2020.
• They approved the payments anyway.
• When fraud was suspected and payments were frozen, the scammers sued the state, claiming racism.
• Walz’s administration dropped the investigation and resumed payments.
• Federal raids in 2022 finally exposed the truth.
Ellison’s office met with the fraudsters.
Some of them donated to DFL campaigns.
No real oversight. No accountability.
Five defendants were convicted in 2024.
But the damage is done:
Over 250,000 children missed real nutrition.
Learning gaps widened. Health crises deepened.
A recent poll shows 70% of Minnesotans now see fraud as the top issue for Walz’s third term.
Trust in state programs is at an all-time low.
2. Medicaid Fraud: Ghost Caregivers, Fake Companies, Real Suffering
Medicaid fraud isn’t new—but under this administration, it’s exploded, building on the unchecked patterns from the pre-2017 era.
Case in Point: Ka Joog & MN Professional PCA Services
• Ali Elmi, board chair of the Somali youth nonprofit Ka Joog, ran a PCA agency.
• He and four others billed $9.5 million for services that never happened.
• Fake caregivers. Forged timesheets. Kickbacks.
• Indicted in 2023 for racketeering and theft.
Yet—after the indictment—Walz’s Department of Human Services continued sending over $600,000 in grants to Ka Joog through 2025.
Why?
Because oversight is a joke.
Housing Stabilization Services (HSS): $100 Million+ Vanished
This program was supposed to house disabled and low-income Minnesotans.
Instead:
• Anwar Adow, 25, pleaded guilty to stealing $1.2 million.
• He used stock photos and placeholder names like “Caregiver Name.”
• Forged signatures.
• Hid $88,000 in cash under mattresses.
• Bought a 2023 Mercedes with money meant for the homeless.
Julie Quiroz, a homeless mother, was promised shelter.
She spent two winters in her car with her dog.
The feds banned 115 fake businesses and shut down the entire HSS program in October 2025.
But not before $250 million disappeared statewide.
Autism Therapy Scams
Fraudsters reused shell companies from the Feeding Our Future network to bill for “ghost therapy sessions.”
Desperate parents—waiting months for real help—got nothing.
Total Medicaid losses?
Hundreds of millions annually, per federal investigations.
That’s care stolen from 1.2 million eligible Minnesotans—many disabled, elderly, or children.
3. The Donors, the Silence, the Cover-Up
Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar have said nothing as these scandals unfolded—mirroring their silence during the 2017 daycare exposures I helped bring to light.
They’ve voted against federal fraud crackdowns.
Their wealthy donors—tied to the same nonprofit networks—keep the money flowing.
Walz says, “We didn’t know.”
But audits show his office ignored warnings and approved “sloppy receipts”—just like the ignored intelligence I saw on duty.
Ellison blames “racism” when fraud is investigated.
Meanwhile, his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit prosecutes one case at a time while the system bleeds.
This is racketeering:
• Lies (fake audits)
• Propaganda (victim-blaming lawsuits)
• Coercion (pressuring agencies to keep paying)
Donors get rich.
Politicians get reelected.
We pay the price.
The Human Cost: A State in Crisis
This isn’t just numbers. This is real pain—pain that traces back to the unheeded warnings of 2017 and before.
• Children going hungry while fake meals are counted on spreadsheets.
• Disabled adults left homeless while fraudsters buy luxury cars.
• Seniors waiting for care that never comes.
• Crime rising as desperation grows—Minneapolis now called a “corrupt hellhole” with boarded-up streets and nightly gunfire.
Economically:
• Medicaid premiums up 15%.
• SNAP delays affecting 440,000 families—38% of them children.
• Experts warn: $20 billion budget hole by 2030 if this continues.
• That means cuts to schools, roads, and public safety.
We Must Confront Fraud—Starting with Ourselves
We all have to look in the mirror.
The small lies. The shortcuts. The silence.
They create the culture where big fraud thrives.
But good people can change.
We start by admitting the small things—so we’re not blinded to the big ones.
Then we demand accountability from our leaders.
A New Path Forward
As your Governor, I will:
1. Audit every state program—no sacred cows.
2. Prosecute fraud without political favoritism.
3. Restore transparency so every dollar is tracked in real time.
4. Protect the vulnerable—not the connected.
Minnesota deserves leaders who serve, not steal.
Join me.
Share your story.
Stand with me.
Together, we end the fraud.
Together, we heal the harm.
Phillip C. Parrish
Candidate for Governor of Minnesota
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Phillip C. Parrish is a retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, farmer, teacher, administrator, and candidate for Governor of Minnesota in 2026.