The FBI confirmed that federal and state agencies were conducting "court-authorized investigative activity" at multiple locations across Minnesota, including sites in the Twin Cities and Rochester, according to MPR News. Meanwhile, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office also confirmed that its Medicaid Fraud Control Unit executed search warrants at Iska Inc. in St. Louis Park and Bright Horizon Therapy in Edina, both of which provide autism-related or other Medicaid-funded services.
The operation involved the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, IRS criminal investigators, U.S. Postal Inspectors and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, according to FOX 9 Minneapolis.
"This is an active investigation, and no further details are available at this time," FBI Minneapolis spokesperson Matt Vogel told MPR News.
Iska Inc. received more than $16.7 million in Medicaid payments between 2018 and 2025, according to state data reviewed by the Minnesota Star Tribune. The business participated in Minnesota's Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program, which provides services to children and young people with autism and has faced increasing scrutiny over fraud allegations.
The latest searches follow a series of enforcement operations targeting suspected fraud in Minnesota's publicly funded programs. In April, federal and state investigators executed 22 search warrants in Minnesota, including at autism service providers and childcare businesses.
The Justice Department also announced charges against 15 defendants in May in connection with alleged health care fraud schemes involving more than $90 million in intended losses. The cases included an alleged $46.6 million scheme targeting Minnesota's autism intervention program, which DOJ said saw Medicaid claims surge from more than $600,000 in 2018 to more than $400 million by 2025.
The raids come ahead of Vice President JD Vance's planned visit to Minnesota — alongside members of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud — where allegations of public-services fraud have fueled growing questions about oversight.
Local officials tried to grow close to activist groups and collected information that was then shared with industry
Newly released emails show local government officials in Minneapolis have quietly surveilled environmental justice activists who are working to close a controversial waste incinerator that is emitting pollution into low-income neighborhoods around it, activist groups allege.
County officials sent an employee who is also an environmental justice activist to collect intelligence, among other tactics, emails show. The information was then used to help successfully kill state-level environmental legislation opposed by the incinerator’s leadership, and try to stay one step ahead of activist campaigns and protests. In another instance, a county employee presenting himself as an ally allegedly tried to obtain the identity of a whistleblower, a recording shows.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Republican running an underdog bid to unseat embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, tore into his progressive opponent after her Washington, D.C., home was raided a month before the midterm election.
John Nagel said it should be easy for the Somali-born congresswoman to clear up any public misunderstandings of her immigration status amid a federal investigation into alleged fraud and said that Omar views herself as Somali first, American second.
He also claimed that Minneapolis has a "terrorist problem" and a gun-running operation, and called for a task force to crack down on the Somali gang violence.
"We have two problems in Minnesota. We have a terrorist problem, which you saw with the Mall of America — thank God that the FBI actually took care of that before anybody got in there — and then we have a Somali gang problem," the career law enforcement officer told Fox News Digital.
Nagel, who spent 30 years as a state trooper, claims the issue extends beyond Somali gangs, noting: "We have Somali gangs, we have Asian gangs, we have Black gangs, we have Latino gangs, and we need a gang task force."
The FBI thwarted a terror attack at the Mall of America, located in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, on Oct. 7, 2026.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, was arrested and charged with knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe they would be used to commit a felony and federal crime of terrorism. He is an American citizen born to Somali parents, who allegedly pledged allegiance to Somali-based ISIS offshoot al-Shabaab.
Separately, Somali gangs were blamed by local officials for two separate shooting instances in the Minneapolis suburbs in past weeks. One was a mass shooting at Eden Prairie High School during the school's homecoming celebration. The shooting, which injured two, occurred in the parking lot of the high school after gang members were seen making gang signs at one another. Abdirahman Ahmed Jama, 18, was arrested on a riot charge in that incident.
Court documents said that Jama was the target of a later Somali gang shooting at a gas station in the town of Bloomington, likely in retaliation for the homecoming shooting, according to FOX 9. More than 100 rounds of ammunition were fired in that incident.
"They don't necessarily deal in drugs yet. They're kind of a low-level gang, but they're still vicious," Nagel said of the gangs. "Primarily, they deal in guns. They buy and sell guns, illicit guns. They're also the ones that know how to take and remove some parts and basically turn a pistol into a little mini machine gun. That's what we saw in Bloomington and Eden Prairie, you know, where all of those rounds were expanded."
After the recent uptick in suburban Somali violence, according to Nagel, local officials have finally recognized the violence as Somali gang-related, after strong pushback from anyone who suggested that in recent years.
Nagel said that when Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said a year ago that Somali gang violence was a problem, he was called a "racist" and "immediately attacked by the Somali community."
"And of course, you know, the media loves that, and they went right along with it," he said. "[The] problem was, he was right. There was a Somali gang problem."
"So, we're in a really good spot because we've now all come out and said, 'Yes, we have a Somali gang problem,' and that being called a racist doesn't have a sting to it anymore," Nagel continued.
As for Omar, who is under criminal probe for potentially falsifying information on her immigration paperwork, Nagel said she deserves due process, but that she actively tries to undermine the United States.
"It's a very serious accusation, and we definitely want due process," he said. "She deserves the same investigation that everybody else would have, and in her own words, no one is above the law."
Nagel added that while it's not incumbent upon Omar to prove her innocence, he thinks it would be simple for the Somali-born congresswoman to clear up any public misunderstandings of her immigration status.
"However, it would be very simple if you are innocent to be able to come up with the paperwork, do the DNA sample. I mean, there are a lot of things that you could do that put a lot this behind you, and I would think that as a politician, you know, you're not a private person anymore, you're a public person," he said. "The people that voted for you have a right to know if they can trust you, and as a politician, I would be doing everything I could to make sure that I maintain that trust. And right now, I don't see much trust in what she's doing."
Ultimately, Nagel thinks Omar views herself as a Somali first.
"Her first love is Somalia. She constantly tells people that. She constantly tells the United States how we're doing everything wrong, and she constantly tries to take the United States and weaken it. "So yes, as far as I'm concerned, Somalia comes first in her life, and we are nothing more than a piggy bank for her."
Investigative journalists James O'Keefe and Cameron Higby have been hit with felony charges by left-wing Minneapolis prosecutors for their video exposing vulnerable loopholes in Minnesota's elections.
Democrat Peggy Flanagan is leading in the Minnesota Senate race against GOP competitor Michele Tafoya, according to a new poll. In The New York Times/Siena University poll, 54 percent of respondents said they were more likely to cast their ballot for Flanagan if Election Day were that day, while 40 percent said the same for…
Democrat Peggy Flanagan is leading in the Minnesota Senate race against GOP competitor Michele Tafoya, according to a new poll. In The New York Times/Siena University poll, 54 percent of respondents said they were more likely to cast their ballot for Flanagan if Election Day were that day, while 40 percent said the same for…
Susan and Michael Pretti say they have been ‘ignored and misled’ in quest for justice over son’s killing by US agents
The parents of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year, accused federal officials of stonewalling them and shielding their son’s killers.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Michael and Susan Pretti made their first public remarks since their son’s death in January, calling for the Department of Justice to hold those involved in their son’s death accountable. The federal government has not provided them with meaningful information about the case, they said.
Retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) says that President Trump is “laying the groundwork” for MAGA allies to “steal” the Senate election after Trump said the federal government would be keeping an eye on the state. “He’s blatantly laying the groundwork to steal an election if his chosen candidate doesn’t win… Minnesota will not take kindly…
Political headwinds are blowing in Democrats’ favor nationally, with high gas prices and President Trump’s record-low approval rating creating a difficult midterm environment for Republicans. But in Minnesota’s open Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D), Democrats are facing an unexpectedly competitive race. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) holds a slim lead over…
The Trump administration has suggested that state prosecutors don't have jurisdiction to investigate federal officers, while Minnesota officials have said they don't trust the federal government to investigate itself.
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