As Minneapolis continues to deal with the fallout of a massive fraud scandal likely amounting to over $1 billion, Fox News Digital spoke to three Republican lawmakers in the state who explained their belief that Gov. Tim Walz deserves much of the blame.
"I would say the number one culprit in the fraud going on here in Minnesota is our executive," state Sen. Julia Coleman, who represents Carver County in southwest Minneapolis, told Fox News Digital.
"Governor Tim Walz is in charge of making sure that the taxpayers' dollars are protected."
Minneapolis has been at the center of controversy in recent weeks over a massive fraud scheme dating back to at least 2020 that permeated several departments and several nonprofits ranging from childcare services, to COVID-19 relief, to autism care, and is believed by many to eventually eclipse $1 billion in wasted state and federal taxpayer funds.
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"He had years to stop this," Coleman said about Walz, who has faced increasing backlash for not taking swift action to investigate the fraud. He said the governor "only seems to care now that it's getting national attention."
State Rep. Mark Koran, who represents Minnesota's District 28 in eastern Minnesota, told Fox News Digital the "scale and scope" of the fraud is "almost incomprehensible" and that the buck stops with Walz.
"You have to look at who's been solely in charge of that process, which has been Governor Walz," Koran said. "The executive body controls every agency. And I think what to understand is how they are either extraordinarily incompetent or willfully complicit. There are no alternatives to it. And I think they're actually both."
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In addition to facing overall blame due to the governor overseeing all the agencies involved in the fraud, Walz has faced criticism for his specific response to the Feeding Our Future scandal, which involves a scheme that prosecutors say exploited a federally funded children's nutrition program administered by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) during the COVID-19 pandemic, siphoning money meant to provide meals to low-income kids.
It now stands as the nation's largest COVID-19 fraud case.
"Minnesota has an epidemic of fraud, as the rest of the nation is learning," GOP state Sen. Michael Kreun told Fox News Digital. "We've known here in Minnesota for quite some time that we've had a massive fraud problem, and it's turning out that probably Minnesota is the epicenter of fraud in the United States right now, which is really unfortunate. And you know, we've been working on a lot of anti-fraud measures, particularly over the last year. Unfortunately, Governor Walz has been fighting us in those efforts."
Kreun, who represents the 32nd District in Anoka County north of Minneapolis, said that while there are many culprits, Walz "first and foremost has allowed this fraud to happen."
"Attorney General Keith Ellison has also been very negligent in his handling of the fraud," Kreun explained. "Seems like most of our social services programs here in Minnesota were basically set up under kind of the honor system, and there have not been a lot of guardrails. And once the fraudsters realized how to exploit these programs, the administration, the Walz administration, hasn't done really anything to put safeguards in place to prevent the fraud that was developing over a number of years."
While Republican legislators plan to take action during the next legislative session to implement more oversight of the troubled agencies, Koran told Fox News Digital that many don't understand the "challenge" they face is that the legislature "doesn't have any oversight in the execution and operations of these agencies."
"The governor has had sole responsibility since the day he's arrived," Koran said. "He entered into a fraudulent environment. He's enhanced the fraudulent environment, and he's not done a single thing to stop that fraud."
A spokesperson from Walz's office pushed back on the lawmakers, saying in a statement to Fox News Digital that Walz "views addressing fraud as a top priority."
"Over the last three years, he has made systematic changes to state government," the spokesperson said. "Detecting fraud is resource intensive and time-consuming - especially when it comes to the federal Medicaid programs that have a complex interplay between federal, state, and county governments and private insurance companies. It is an issue that many states, both red and blue, have faced."
"That is why we have created additional checks and balances throughout state government. We have hired investigators, auditors, and law enforcement. The Governor has brought in an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs at the Department of Human Services (DHS) and created a specialized fraud-fighting law enforcement unit at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He has installed new leadership at DHS with a single-minded focus on stopping fraudulent payments. Many of the changes have not been flashy or headline-grabbing, but rather just the hard work of building stronger safeguards throughout state government."
Fox News Digital's Amada Macias contributed to this report.
