That’s $10 billion, with a “b.”
As Scott discusses below, we all learned a new phrase from the lead federal fraud prosecutor in Minnesota, Joe Thompson.
He was referring to a couple of gentlemen from Philadelphia who traveled to the North Star State to allegedly defraud Minnesota’s welfare program and perhaps take in a little ice fishing.
The other big news is that we’ve added another zero to our estimate of fraud in Minnesota, now reaching the $10 billion (with a “b”) mark since Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison took office.
Producing more news than can be consumed locally,
- Newsweek: Minnesota’s “industrial-scale” Medicaid fraud may top $9 billion—prosecutor
- The Hill: DOJ charges 6 more in growing Minnesota fraud scandal
- Philadelphia Inquirer: Two Philly men accused of ‘fraud tourism’ in a Minnesota scandal
- AP: Half of $18B in federal funds for Minnesota-run programs may have been defrauded, official says
- Newsmax: FBI Raids Minnesota Business in Fraud Investigation
- Washington Post: About half of Medicaid’s $18B in claims paid to Minnesota programs may be fraudulent, official says
- New York Times: Several Billion Dollars Were Lost to Fraud in Minnesota, Prosecutors Say
That last headline from the Times, which appears on Google search, cuts the deepest. President Trump had mentioned earlier that the Minnesota fraud reached into the billions, plural, with a “b.”
Because Trump said it, the local Minneapolis Star Tribune has consumed oceans of ink trying to “prove” that the fraud is merely in the hundreds of millions, with an “m.”
Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.
