"Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota's Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars' worth of social services that were never provided," The Times reports. "Federal prosecutors say that 59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayers' money has been stolen in three plots they are investigating."

Most notably, officers of a tax-funded "nonprofit" called "Feeding Our Future" claimed to have fed tens of thousands of children, but really spent the money on fancy cars, houses, and foreign real estate investments for themselves, according to federal prosecutors.

As a Minnesota Star Tribune article outlines, red flags began to appear as early as 2018. When concerns about a forged signature were brought to a Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) official overseeing the food program, she said in an email that, "Unless there is a conviction for any business-related offense, or the organization is no longer in good standing with the IRS, I prefer not to be kept informed of developments related to the dispute."

In 2021, after years of suspicious evidence had piled up, such as falsified documents and many reports that reimbursements had been made for meals that were never served, the MDE sought permission from a District Judge to withhold reimbursement claims from Feeding Our Future. But the MDE had forfeited its powers to obtain financial documents and elected not to request a civil investigation, so the Judge rejected the effort to withhold funds.

The fraudsters only began to be prosecuted after officials had dragged their feet, waiving their power to pull the relevant bank records, delaying executing search warrants for 9-10 months, delaying issuing indictments for 17 months, and waiting to launch an investigation until after Feeding Our Future had already ceased operations in 2022.

This was not just a freak occurrence, but part of a widespread norm of defrauding social programs in the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as The New York Times article notes, "…Americans stole tens of billions through unemployment benefits, business loans and other forms of aid, according to federal auditors." Overall, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion to fraud every year, and far more to improper payments generally.