The national conversation on fraud has been simmering since Elon Musk began the Department of Government Efficiency early in 2025. Musk faced intense scrutiny for being vocal about fraud, but as 2026 begins, the conversation has again reached a boiling point.
The House Oversight Committee convened Wednesday afternoon to discuss Minnesota’s widespread welfare fraud, but the five-hour conversation, which devolved into several yelling matches, also addressed fraud allegations made nationwide.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he suspects massive fraud in California, as does Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. “If you want, as I do, to advocate for Medicare for all, to advocate for higher taxes, you have to have the public trust. People need to have a receipt for what their money is going toward,” Khanna told CNBC.
The president said a federal investigation into possible fraud in California has commenced, as federal officers investigate social program fraud from coast to coast.
The reports of rampant fraud in Minnesota have left other states wondering what might plague their own welfare programs.
Indictments for fraud made in Boston
Just before Christmas, the U.S. Justice Department charged two Haitian nationals living in Boston for large-scale food stamp fraud, totaling around $7 million.
The DOJ says Antonio Bonheur, 74, and Saul Alisme, 21, operated two small stores within a single storefront, and when the special agent reviewed security footage from a day with multiple large transactions, they saw no customers coming in or out of the store with groceries.
The indictment accuses Bonheur of trafficking more than $6 million during a period of more than three years.
Leah Foley, the acting U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said, “These men abused one of government’s most critical food safety net programs for their own financial gain.”
“These defendants exchanged SNAP benefits for cash,” she added.
Bonheur and Alisme were also allegedly selling meal formula developed by Feed My Starving Children, “which are paid for entirely by charitable donations and are intended to be shipped directly to food-insecure children overseas, including children in Haiti,” Foley said.
She continued, “These products are not for sale anywhere. Yet Bonheur and Alsime were selling them in their stores for nearly $10 a pack.”
Fraud allegations continue to swirl in Minnesota
The day after Christmas, independent journalist and Utah native Nick Shirley posted a video looking into allegations of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social programs.
Shirley’s video now has 138 million views on X, and has catalyzed federal involvement into the state’s fraud-ridden welfare systems.
So far, seven federal departments have launched their own investigations and halted payments to the state.
For instance, the Justice Department has charged about 100 people, Health and Human Services has frozen all child care payments to the state, and the Small Business Administration has paused its annual grant programs and suspended nearly 7,000 borrowers for about $400 million in suspected fraud, the White House reported last Friday.
While these actions may seem drastic, the state’s then-acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said he believes that at least half of the $18 billion in Medicaid funds the state has been given over the last eight years may have been used fraudulently.
Somali ambassador to the U.N. linked to Ohio provider
Somalia’s ambassador to the United Nations is connected to an Ohio-based health care provider, which has been accused of engaging in Medicaid fraud, Jim O’Neill, the acting HHS deputy secretary and CDC director, confirmed Monday.
In an X post, O’Neill wrote, “I can confirm public speculation that Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman, Permanent Representative of Somalia to the UN and President of the Security Council, is in fact associated with Progressive Health Care Services, a home health agency in Cincinnati.”
“HHS has previously taken action against Progressive in response to a conviction for Medicaid fraud. More to come,” he said.
A screenshot of Osman’s LinkedIn profile shows the ambassador serving as “Managing Director” of the health care service for five years, from 2014 to 2019. In 2017, Osman also began serving as Somalia’s permanent representative in New York.