In an epic announcement made Friday, January 9, on Fox News Channel, Trump Administration Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed that whistleblowers who reveal information related to the sprawling, mostly Somali migrant-committed fraud scandal in Minnesota will receive cash payments for helping the government catch fraudsters.
As background, Minnesota has remained in the news for weeks because of the massive scale of the fraud committed by Somalis in the state, namely the pilfering of welfare programs funded by state and federal taxpayers, such as the “Feeding Our Future” program that provided free meals to needy kids and a daycare program that similarly turned into a major scandal.
In response to the news of the scandal, the Trump Administration has been cracking down on Gov. Tim Walz’s state with a vengeance, doing everything from refusing to continue funding welfare programs formerly supported by HHS and USDA to sending in thousands of agents to investigate the generally Somali-owned and run businesses suspected of fraud.
Now, to crack down on the fraud yet further, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Laura Ingraham on her Fox News Channel program “The Ingraham Angle” that those who help shine a light on the growing money laundering and fraud scandal will receive monetary rewards from the federal government for doing so.
Beginning by commenting on how he thinks the fraudsters will turn on each other and help the government find out what is going on in a desperate bid to win plea deals before it’s too late, Bessent told “The Ingraham Angle”, “We know that these rats will turn on each other.”
Continuing, the Treasury Secretary explained that the Trump Administration is, simultaneously, rolling out payments to whistleblowers so that those who help it seek out and crush fraud will be financially rewarded for doing so, saying, “We are going to offer whistleblower payments to anyone who wants to tell us the who, what, when, where and how this fraud has been done.”
Adding to that, Bessent went on to explain that bringing in whistleblowers and paying them for information is expected to help tremendously as the Trump Administration starts cracking down with increased vigor on the fraud, saying, “I think that that will give us a great leap forward on how to get it done.”
"*" indicates required fields
Bessent also commented on the ongoing fraud and the sort of disgusting spectacles the administration is finding as it digs in. Giving one example, he said, “One of the people who has been convicted of fraud — she was given $200,000 to bribe a juror. And she was so corrupt, she skimmed $80,000 of it and only tried to give a $120,000 bribe.”
Watch him here:
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Bessent vowed that the Treasury Department would continue doing everything possible to obliterate the ongoing fraud, saying, “Treasury will deploy all tools to bring an end to this egregious unchecked fraud and hold perpetrators to account.”
Similarly, the day before that, he vowed that the criminals would be held accountable and this sort of thing prevented from ever again happening, saying, “I am here this week to signal the U.S. Treasury’s unwavering commitment to recovering stolen funds, prosecuting fraudulent criminals, preventing scandals like this from ever happening again, and investigating similar schemes state by state.”