The Trump/Bondi Justice Department has rapidly expanded fraud investigations in Minnesota since May 2025, adding dozens of new charges and broadening probes into Medicaid-funded programs, autism treatment billing, housing services, and childhood nutrition fraud tied to the Feed Our Future program. This piece lays out the timeline of charges, summarizes the scope of alleged losses, and notes how the new administration’s approach differs from the prior DOJ’s activity.
Investigations that led to major charges in Minnesota trace back to January 2022 search warrants focused on the Minneapolis Somali community, which indicates the probe likely began months earlier in 2021. Early filings included a May 20, 2022 passport fraud complaint for Abdiaziz Farah and a superseding indictment in September 2022 that added dozens of counts and co-defendants. By September 22, 2022, federal prosecutors had charged dozens of people across multiple indictments and informations related to the Feed Our Future scheme.
Between September 2022 and February 2024 the Biden DOJ charged 67 people in connection with Feed Our Future, all tied to claims the organization billed USDA childhood nutrition programs for meals that were not provided. Trials and pleas stretched into 2024 and early 2025, producing guilty verdicts and numerous guilty pleas that gradually resolved many of the initial cases. The total estimated loss attributed to the Feed Our Future fraud has been placed at roughly $250 million.
When the Trump administration took office, the Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi moved quickly to expand and accelerate enforcement in Minnesota. Beginning in May 2025 the Department charged 21 additional defendants in under seven months and opened investigations into new areas, including autism treatment billing, housing stability services, and an Integrated Community Supports program funded by Medicaid. Those new charges included defendants accused of receiving millions in allegedly fraudulent Medicaid or USDA payments.
Key developments in 2025 show the pace and reach of the new phase of enforcement. On May 29, 2025 one defendant was charged after allegedly receiving $1.7 million and seeking another $700,000. On June 6, 2025 another defendant was charged over claims of receiving $1.4 million tied to more than 600,000 nonexistent meals. Subsequent charges in August and late 2025 alleged multimillion-dollar schemes, including a defendant accused of receiving $2.7 million and another linked to a $6 million autism treatment fraud allegation in December 2025.
The Bondi DOJ also targeted Medicaid-funded programs that ballooned in cost. The so-called Integrated Community Supports program began in 2021 and was billed at $4.6 million that first year; by 2024 Minnesota billed roughly $170 million for the program, and nearly $180 million through September 2025, totaling more than $475 million across five years. On December 18, 2025 federal searches were announced in connection with this program, though indictments in that specific probe had not been publicly announced at that time.
At a December 18, 2025 press event the Acting U.S. Attorney described investigations into 14 different Medicaid programs and warned the fraud was large in scale. The article preserved a verbatim quote: “The fraud is not isolated. It is not small. The magnitude cannot be overstated…. [It] is not a handful of bad actors…. It is a staggering industrial scale fraud.” That stark language underlines why federal prosecutors broadened the inquiry beyond nutrition assistance to include multiple Medicaid-funded initiatives.
In addition to prosecutions tied directly to Feed Our Future, the Bondi DOJ opened investigations into housing stability services, where four indictments alleged about $8.4 million in Medicaid losses, and an autism treatment scheme alleged to involve $14 million. Several charges in late 2025 accused defendants of billing for nonexistent meals for tens or hundreds of thousands of children, with alleged payments ranging from roughly $1 million to multiple millions per defendant.
Critics had charged the prior DOJ under the Biden administration failed to pursue state-level complicity or potential political connections tied to the fraud. But prosecutors note that federal criminal liability requires evidence of conduct that advances fraud, not merely oversight failures or poor management by state officials. To date there has been no public indication of criminal charges against Minnesota elected officials for aiding these schemes.
The Bondi Department of Justice coordinated with HHS OIG, the IRS, and Postal Inspectors on many of these probes, reflecting a multi-agency effort to trace Medicaid and federal program payments. Reports cited in public comments indicated dozens of open investigations into healthcare and homecare providers, signaling an intent to follow the money and target billing networks rather than simply isolated providers.
Moving forward, federal prosecutors in Minnesota appear likely to pursue rolling indictments and additional charges over the coming years, potentially expanding beyond Minnesota’s borders where billing networks and contractors operate nationally. The recent enforcement push makes clear the new DOJ will take an aggressive posture on alleged large-scale fraud in federal benefit programs, with prosecutions centered on alleged billing schemes and alleged money laundering tied to proceeds.
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