Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the administration's expanding investigation into a massive Minnesota welfare fraud scheme, allegedly carried out mainly by Somalis living in the state, telling CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that federal authorities are now tracking overseas money transfers linked to the case — including funds sent to Somalia and the Middle East.
In the interview, Bessent suggested that new immigrants must adapt to both cultural and legal norms in the U.S. "When you come to this country, you've got to learn which side of the road to drive on. You've got to learn to stop at stop signs, and you've got to learn not to defraud the American people."
Bessent emphasized that the probe began with the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit, not state officials. He said the federal government had to "clean up the mess" after Minnesota failed to detect large-scale abuse within its nutrition and childcare programs, a scandal that has already led to dozens of indictments.
"The initial fraud ... was discovered by IRS Criminal Investigations. This was not an endogenous thing that the state of Minnesota decided," Bessent said. "We had to go in and clean up the mess for them, and this is part of the continued cleanup."
Bessent said investigators have identified substantial sums moving from individuals implicated in the fraud — including some who donated to Gov. Tim Walz, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Attorney General Keith Ellison — into what he described as "money-bureau services," unregulated wire-transfer networks operating outside the formal banking system.
According to Bessent, those funds were then sent overseas. "That money has gone overseas, and we are tracking that ... both to the Middle East and Somalia to see what the uses of that have been," he said.
When Bessent was asked about allegations by conservative commentators that the money might have supported terrorism, the treasury secretary declined to make any such claim, calling it premature: "That's why it's an investigation. We started it last week. We'll see where it goes."
He also criticized Omar for what he described as efforts to downplay the scandal, saying that "she was gaslighting the American people."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.