Treasury Department probing COVID fraud scheme

WCCO investigative reporter Jonah Kaplan joins me now. So, Jonah, dozens of arrests have been made in this case. The leader of this scheme was also convicted. Why is this investigation still underway?

Because it's still ongoing. I mean, even a few weeks ago, there were new indictments, and prosecutors tell me that there are more indictments that are going to be coming. We're talking about a wide variety of fraud that happened, and there's just so much of it that it takes time to go through all of it. I mean, there have been 61 convictions, nearly 90 people charged and counting. So for a team of maybe only four or five prosecutors to dig through several years of money going out the door, dozens of companies, some reputable, some not, but they have to be investigated. And when you look at one fraud, usually that is the smoke to a fire of many other frauds. And that is essentially what's happened because there was one fraud in nutrition that they found all these meal programs but then prosecutors started digging in and found vulnerabilities and fraud in a housing stabilization program and then in a behavioral health program that was helping autism, kids that are suffering from autism and that are needing help. And that was taken advantage of as well.

Up until this point, is there any evidence of a link to terrorist groups in Somalia? Several top prosecutors and investigators have told me there is no evidence of direct payments to a terror group. The nuance to this is let's say you're sending money to family who's living in Somalia or East Africa or Mogadishu. And the ruling party, the ruling government is al-Shabab. If they take a tax on that money, well, OK, maybe that money wound up in a terrorist's hands, but does that mean you, as the person sending the money meant for it to get there? Does that mean that you, that individual, supported terrorism? No. It's also very difficult. What we're learning from investigators is that some of the money if it's delivered on wire transfer, especially if it's maybe gone through third party or maybe through crypto, it's very tough to track. It's not like there is a paper trail, the receipts. There's no check that says to al-Shabab with a memo for terror activities. It doesn't really work like that. So it's very difficult for financial analysts to keep track of. OK, Jonah Kaplan. Good to see you in Studio 57. Thank you.