Minnesota Republicans blame Gov. Walz for $1 billion fraud scandal

Minneapolis, Minnesota – like Minneapolis Fox News Digital continues to deal with the fallout from a massive fraud scandal potentially worth more than $1 billion, and Fox News Digital spoke to three Republican state legislators who made clear their belief that Gov. Tim Walz deserves much of the blame.

“I would say the number one culprit in the fraud that is happening here in Minnesota is our law enforcement officer,” state Sen. Julia Coleman, who represents Carver County in southwest Minneapolis, told Fox News Digital.

“Governor Tim Walz is responsible for making sure taxpayer dollars are protected.”

Minneapolis has been at the center of controversy in recent weeks over a massive fraud scheme dating back to at least 2020 that has permeated multiple departments and numerous nonprofits ranging from child welfare services, to COVID-19 relief, to autism care, and that many believe will eventually surpass $1 billion in wasted state and federal taxpayer money.

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Tim Walz speaks on stage during the 2025 SXSW Conference & Festival at the Austin Convention Center on March 8, 2025, in Austin, Texas (Tiberna Hobson/Getty Images)

“He had years to stop this,” Coleman said of Walz, who did so. She faced increasing backlash For not taking prompt action to investigate the fraud. The governor “seems to only care now because he’s getting national attention,” he said.

State Rep. Mark Curran, who represents Minnesota’s 28th District in eastern Minnesota, told Fox News Digital that the “scale and scope” of the fraud is “almost incomprehensible” and that the responsibility lies with Walz.

““You have to look at who was solely responsible for this operation, which is Governor Walz,” Curran said. “The executive branch controls every agency. I think what has to be understood is how they are either extraordinarily incompetent or willfully complicit. There are no alternatives to that. And I think it’s actually both.”

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The sun rises over the Minnesota State Capitol. (Steve Karnovsky/Associated Press)

In addition to facing blanket censure for the governor’s oversight of all agencies involved in the fraud, Walz has faced criticism for his specific response to the Feed Our Future scandal, which includes a scheme that prosecutors say took advantage of the federally funded child nutrition program run by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) during the COVID-19 pandemic, stealing money intended to provide meals to low-income children.

It is now the largest COVID-19 fraud case in the country.

““Minnesota has a fraud epidemic, as the rest of the nation is learning. We’ve known here in Minnesota for some time that we have a massive fraud problem, and it turns out that Minnesota is probably the epicenter of fraud in the United States right now, which is really unfortunate,” Minnesota Republican Sen. Michael Creon told Fox News Digital. As you know, we’ve been working on a lot of anti-fraud measures, especially over the past year. “Unfortunately, Governor Walz has been fighting us in these efforts.”

Creon, who represents the 32nd District in Anoka County north of Minneapolis, said that although there were many perpetrators, Walz “first and foremost allowed this fraud to happen.”

“Creon explained that Prosecutor Keith Ellison was also extremely negligent in his handling of the fraud. “It seemed like most of our social services programs here in Minnesota were essentially set up under some kind of honor system, and there weren’t a lot of guardrails. And once the scammers realized how to exploit these programs, the administration, the Walz administration, didn’t really do anything to put safeguards in place to prevent the fraud that had been developing over several years.”

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A man sleeps on a bench in the Cedars-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday, September 17, 2025. (Derek Schock for Fox News Digital)

while republican Lawmakers plan to take action during the upcoming legislative session to implement more oversight of the troubled agencies, and Curran told Fox News Digital that many do not understand the “challenge” they face is that the Legislature “does not have any oversight over the implementation and operations of these agencies.”

“Curran said that the governor bears sole responsibility from the day of his arrival. He entered into a fraudulent environment. “He fostered a fraudulent environment, and did not do a single thing to stop this fraud.”

A spokesperson for Walz’s office responded to lawmakers, saying in a statement to Fox News Digital that Walz “views tackling fraud as a top priority.”

“Over the past three years, he has made systemic changes to state government,” the spokesman said. “Detecting fraud is resource-intensive and time-consuming — especially when it comes to federal Medicaid programs that have a complex interplay between federal, state and county governments and private insurers. It’s a problem that many states, both red and blue, have faced.”

“That’s why we created additional checks and balances throughout state government. We appointed investigators, auditors, and law enforcement officials. The Governor hired an outside firm to review payments for high-risk programs at the Department of Human Services (DHS) and created a specialized anti-fraud enforcement unit at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He appointed new leadership at DHS with a singular focus on stopping fraudulent payments. Many of the changes were not flashy or headline-grabbing, but just the hard work of building stronger safeguards throughout state government.”

Fox News Digital’s Amada Macías contributed to this report.