REED COWAN:
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Well, a billion-dollar case of pandemic relief fraud in the state of Minnesota having massive repercussions for that state's Somali community. Just days ago, the Trump administration ramped up ICE activities there. CBS News investigative correspondent Tom Hanson joins us with more. So, Tom, what are lawmakers saying about this case, friend? Yeah, well, you know this has really captivated so many people in Washington, Reed, and there's a lot of concern. There's a lot of questions about where this money went and what it was spent on. In the past three years-- I just want to give you a rundown of the numbers here-- 87 people have been charged, 61 convicted, and the bulk of those people are from the Somalian community in Minneapolis. So according to investigators, the scheme involved bogus receipts that, during the pandemic, people could file for assistance with meal programs, housing assistance, behavioral health services, which were charged to the state, as you mentioned, roughly $1 billion there. Critics claim that some of this money potentially could have gone to Al-Shabaab, which if you're not familiar, that is an al-Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia. Investigators, though, have really refuted that claim. But nonetheless, this is captivating Capitol Hill. People are talking about it. On Face theNation,that played out in real time when Margaret Brennan pressed Scott Bessent about it. She also heard from Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Here's what they had to say. A lot of money has been transferred from the individuals who committed this fraud, including those who donated to the government. Governor donated to Representative Omar and donated to AG Ellison. But they've been transferred to something called MBSes, and those are-- Mortgage-backed securities? What do you mean? Sorry? Transferred to what? These are money the bureau services, and they are wire-transfer organizations that are outside the regulated banking system. And that money has gone overseas, and we are tracking that, both to the Middle East and to Somalia, to see what the uses of that have been. If there was a linkage in the money that they had stolen going to terrorism, then that is a failure of the FBI and our court system in not figuring that out and basically charging them with these charges. But if that is the case, if money from US tax dollars is being sent to help with terrorism in Somalia, we want to know, and we want those people prosecuted, and we want to make sure that that doesn't ever happen again. So you can see the big question here is, where did that money go? We have an incredible reporter on the ground for WCCO, our Minneapolis owned and operated station, Jonah Kaplan. He says that he spoke to federal investigators who say that the money mainly went to the fraudsters themselves. We're talking houses, cars, jewelry, things of that matter. But nonetheless, this is really raising some serious questions over a pretty mind-blowing scandal unfolding in Minnesota, Reed. Tom Hanson, thank you so much for that report.
