THEY COME TO LOOT AND THIS IS ONLY ONE OF MILLIONS OF SUCH CASES.
Mogadishu, Minnesota
A massive daycare fraud in America’s most welcoming state raises questions about the limits of assimilation.
By Scott W. Johnson
City Journal, May 21, 2018
I found that they were sophisticated users of social-welfare benefits. Two of four Somali-Minnesotans intercepted at JFK airport in New York en route to Syria had used federal financial-aid funds to finance their travel; one of the defendants even financed one of his planned trips to Syria with a $5,000 debit-card withdrawal on his student-loan account. The daycare case also demonstrates savvy insight into the opportunities to take advantage of the quasi-governmental American social-services apparatus.
. . .
The case of Fozia Ali, recently sworn in as a member of the park board of an upscale Twin Cities suburb, is illustrative. Ali’s daycare center in south Minneapolis was suspected of billing the government for more than $1 million of bogus child-care services. According to Special Agent Craig Lisher, the FBI “found records that she was collecting a significant amount of money for a much larger number of children than were actually attending the center.” Ali’s case also had an international component. “We are aware that some of the funds went overseas, what she was cashing out, money from the business,” Lisher noted. He declined to specify the purpose to which the funds were put.
Ali used a phone app to register charges to the Minnesota state government while she stayed at an $800-per-night hotel in Nairobi. She pleaded guilty in March to charges of wire fraud and is serving time in federal prison. But the scam goes well beyond Ali. Though the total loss to the state’s $248 million daycare program remains to be determined, we have a serious case of deceit, obviously. But the real damage, harder to measure, is likely to be to the high-trust values of Minnesota, where newcomers can dupe the natives so easily.
. . .
https://www.city-journal.org/html/mogadishu-minnesota-15924.html
EYE ON THE NEWS
May 21, 2018
Mogadishu, Minnesota
A massive daycare fraud in America’s most welcoming state raises questions about the limits of assimilation.May 21, 2018
Public safety
The Social Order
When it
was noted that the carry-on bags of multiple airline passengers traveling from
Minneapolis to Somalia contained millions of dollars in cash, on a regular
basis, law enforcement was naturally curious to know where the money came from
and where it was going. It soon emerged that
millions of taxpayer dollars, and possibly much more, had been stolen through a
massive scam of Minnesota’s social-services sector, specifically through
fraudulent daycare claims. To make matters worse, the money appears to have
wound up in areas of Somalia controlled by al-Shabab, the Islamic jihadist
group responsible for numerous terrorist outrages.
Starting
in the 1990s, the State Department directed thousands of refugees from
Somalia’s civil war to Minnesota, which is now home to the largest population
of Somalis outside Somalia itself. As the Washington Times noted in 2015, in
Minnesota, these refugees “can take advantage of some of America’s most
generous welfare and charity programs.” Professor Ahmed Samatar of Macalester
College in St. Paul observed, “Minnesota is exceptional in so many ways but
it’s the closest thing in the United States to a true social democratic state.”
A high-trust, traditionally homogenous community with a deep civil society
marked by thrift, industriousness, and openness, Minnesota seemed like the
ideal place to locate an indigent Somali population now estimated at 100,000.
Public
discussion of the resulting contradictions has been limited, to say the least.
Minnesota governor Mark Dayton has sought to stifle public discussion
with tired imputations of bigotry and intolerance. Indeed, he advised native
Minnesotans with qualms about immigrant resettlement to move out. “If you are
that intolerant, if you are that much of a racist or a bigot, then find another
state,” he said. “Find a state where the minority population is 1 percent or
whatever. It’s not that in Minnesota.” Dayton also made an economic
argument that did not exactly fit the case of Third World immigrants
who are themselves heavy consumers of welfare benefits. “Our economy cannot
expand based on white, B+, Minnesota-born citizens. We don’t have enough,” he
said. A trust-fund baby himself, Dayton was engaging in a classic case of
projection. It was certainly not an invitation to debate.
A
September 2015 report of the House Homeland Security Committee task force on
combating terrorist and foreign-fighter travel revealed that Minnesota led all
states in contributing foreign fighters to ISIS. Reviewing the public cases of
58 Americans who joined or attempted to join ISIS, the task force found that 26
percent of them came from Minnesota. Somali Minnesotans occasionally appear in
the headlines as “Minnesota men” who have taken up terrorist jihad. In 2015, ten such Minnesota men were
charged with seeking to join ISIS in Syria; six pleaded guilty,
and three were convicted in June 2016 (one is presumed dead in Syria).
Attending
the trial of the three who contested the charges against them, I found that
these Minnesota men gave the outward appearance of American assimilation, even
though—as became apparent in the recordings introduced into evidence—they all
hated the United States. They were young, educated, and bilingual. They moved
into and out of the workforce at will. The FBI’s Somali informant worked on the tarmac at
the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, de-icing planes along with one
of the convicted co-conspirators. At one time, all three of the men on trial
worked at a local UPS facility in a leafy St. Paul suburb, where they enjoyed
watching ISIS videos during their breaks.
I found
that they were sophisticated users of social-welfare benefits. Two of four
Somali-Minnesotans intercepted at JFK airport in New York en route to Syria had
used federal financial-aid funds to finance their travel; one of the defendants
even financed one of his planned trips to Syria with a $5,000 debit-card
withdrawal on his student-loan account. The daycare case also demonstrates
savvy insight into the opportunities to take advantage of the
quasi-governmental American social-services apparatus. Ten daycare centers are
under investigation for fraud, and dozens more are suspected. Search warrants
show that each of these daycare centers has received several million dollars in
child-care assistance funds. According to public records and government
sources, most are owned by Somali immigrants.
The case
of Fozia Ali, recently sworn in as a member of the park board of an upscale
Twin Cities suburb, is illustrative. Ali’s daycare center in south Minneapolis
was suspected of billing the government for more than $1 million of bogus
child-care services. According to Special Agent Craig Lisher, the FBI “found
records that she was collecting a significant amount of money for a much larger
number of children than were actually attending the center.” Ali’s case also
had an international component. “We are aware that some of the funds went
overseas, what she was cashing out, money from the business,” Lisher noted. He
declined to specify the purpose to which the funds were put.
Ali used
a phone app to register charges to the Minnesota state government while she
stayed at an $800-per-night hotel in Nairobi. She pleaded guilty in March to
charges of wire fraud and is serving time in federal prison. But the scam goes
well beyond Ali. Though the total loss to the state’s $248 million daycare
program remains to be determined, we have a serious case of deceit, obviously.
But the real damage, harder to measure, is likely to be to the high-trust
values of Minnesota, where newcomers can dupe the natives so easily.
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