The Trump administration announced charges against 15 people accused of defrauding Minnesota's healthcare programs of roughly $90 million, marking what federal prosecutors described as unprecedented action against what they call a statewide fraud crisis.
Colin McDonald, the assistant US attorney general, told reporters in Minneapolis on Thursday that Minnesota's social services had faced "shocking" levels of fraud. He outlined two programs that saw costs spiral dramatically: an autism support initiative that jumped from $600,000 to over $400 million in six years, and a housing assistance program for unhoused people that expanded 50-fold from $2.5 million annually in 2020 to more than $104 million by 2024.
The housing program closed the following year, eliminating services for a vulnerable population. McDonald said the charges include "the highest loss amount ever charged in a Medicaid case in Minnesota, and the largest autism fraud scheme ever charged by the Department of Justice."
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr joined McDonald at the press conference alongside Mehmet Oz, who heads Medicare and Medicaid programs. Kennedy characterized the prosecutions as "the largest autism fraud bust in American history," saying the speed of the charges was unusual. "These kind of operations usually take many years, sometimes a decade," he said. "This was executed with a precision and speed that is unprecedented in the history of law enforcement."
The announcement caps months of Trump administration focus on alleged fraud in Minnesota, though earlier efforts have drawn scrutiny. The federal government deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into the state last winter citing fraud concerns, a move that sparked mass protests in Minneapolis. Two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were fatally shot during ICE operations.
McDonald said the Justice Department deployed 11 "strike force prosecutors" from across the country to work in Minnesota, leading to Thursday's charges. Vice President JD Vance has been put in charge of a broader White House initiative to pursue fraud cases nationwide.
Author James Rodriguez: "The scale of these allegations is real, but the speed of these announcements paired with the aggressive enforcement actions raises questions about whether the rush to prosecute is matching the actual evidence."
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