Overview
- Federal officials held a Minneapolis news conference Thursday to unveil a “major law enforcement action” targeting alleged fraud across Minnesota’s social-service programs.
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and officials from the National Fraud Enforcement Division and the FBI attended the announcement.
- The event came as new federal charges were unsealed and the feeding-program ringleader Aimee Bock faced sentencing, with prosecutors seeking a 50-year term for her conviction in the Feeding Our Future scheme.
- Investigators say probes now cover more than a dozen programs beyond child care, including nutrition, housing and behavioral health, and prosecutors have estimated potential losses as high as $9 billion, a figure Gov. Tim Walz disputes.
- The Justice Department’s action follows recent federal moves to defer hundreds of millions in Medicaid payments and pause child-care funding, a shift that could reduce services for vulnerable Minnesotans and speed local prosecutions and plea deals.