NEW REPORTS SHOW MULTITUDE OF WAYS WALZ & ELLISON ENABLED MASSIVE $250 MILLION FEEDING OUR FUTURE FRAUD 

THE “LARGEST PANDEMIC FRAUD CASE IN THE U.S.” COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED SEVERAL TIMES OVER BY WALZ & ELLISON 

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The MN GOP released the statement below following a news report showing the many ways the Feeding Our Future fraud, the largest pandemic fraud in the U.S, was mishandled by Democrats Tim Walz and Keith Ellison. 

“Gov. Tim Walz and Atty. Gen. Keith Ellison failed the people of Minnesota by not catching the ‘largest pandemic fraud in the U.S.’ sooner. Walz changed his answer about when he knew of the fraud three separate times, but all of them were before the FBI got involved. He violated state law by not informing the Office of the Legislative Auditor. If that wasn’t enough, he lied about being forced to resume payments his administration knew were fraudulent.

“Meanwhile, Walz’s political ally Keith Ellison also failed to investigate the fraud and could have prevented the ‘bulk of payments’ from going out by doing simple investigative work. The fact is that Democrats — who received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the indicted fraudsters — let criminals steal $250 million meant for needy families and have been lying and dodging the media ever since. The people of Minnesota will hold Walz, Ellison, and the Democrats accountable on November 8.” – Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman David Hann 

The article details a multitude of failures by Walz & Ellison:  

  • MDE never asked the AG’s office to investigate the alleged fraud.  
  • MDE violated state law by not notifying the Office of the Legislative Auditor.  
  • The AG’s office could have pulled bank records to find fraud for nearly a year before the FBI was involved.  

News Background  

Minnesota Democrats Tim Walz and Keith Ellison both missed a multitude of opportunities to stop the largest pandemic fraud in the U.S.  

  • “The FBI had to build a case from scratch”  
  • “The Attorney General’s Office has broad authority to conduct civil fraud investigations and could have initiated its own probe or demanded the nonprofit’s bank records before the feds stepped in…Ellison did not launch his own investigation into Feeding Our Future until February 2022.”  
  • “[T]he department could have used its broad investigative powers to collect bank records and other financial documents well before the feds got involved. They said that might have allowed the state to prove fraud and shut down Feeding Our Future before the bulk of payments were made.”  
  • “The Education Department never asked the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office to conduct a civil investigation.” (Star Tribune, Could Minnesota officials have stopped Feeding our Future fraud sooner?, 10/27/22) 

Prominent Democrats, including Keith Ellison, received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from indictees in the Feeding Our Future fraud case 

“Liban Alishire donated $2,700 to Ellison’s re-election campaign.” (Kare 11, Which politicians received donations from Feeding our Future defendants?, 09/29/2022)

Governor Walz lied about having to resume fraudulent payments to Feeding Our Future 

“[Judge] Guthmann says he ‘never issued’ such an order and that the department ‘voluntarily resumed payments.'” (Pioneer Press, Judge never ordered state to keep paying Feeding Our Future, but that’s not the end of it, 9/26/2022) 

# # #