House panel presses IRS to review non-profits after Somali scandal

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano, urging them to set the IRS’s sights on a group of non-profits amid an ongoing scandal involving public fraud linked to the Somali expat community in Minneapolis, Minn.The lawmakers referenced viral reporting from independent journalist Nick Shirley, who highlighted the abudance of allegedly fake daycare centers run by Somalis in Minneapolis, as well as ongoing fraud investigations from the Department of Justice.
“As you are aware, investigative journalists recently uncovered a network of fraud involving Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program and non-profit organizations in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic – a scheme that not only seemingly funneled millions, if not billions, of taxpayer dollars to the Al-Shabaab terrorist group, but has also resulted in the prosecutions of nearly 80 individuals by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to date,” the Republicans wrote. “This is unacceptable.”
“[W]e urge you to use your authority at the IRS to hold tax-exempt organizations accountable when they fail to fulfill their tax-exempt purpose, ensure taxpayer dollars do not end up in the hands of designated terrorist organizations, and implement the necessary processes to make sure that the Feeding Our Future scheme cannot happen again,” they added.
Minneapolis has become a hotspot not just for fraud investigations, but for immigration enforcement operations, which have seen ICE agents surge to the city in recent weeks.
Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.

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