U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced several initiatives that would combat fraud in Minnesota.
As part of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, the Treasury department has initiated several Treasury initiatives and investigations aimed at combating fraud in that state. After meeting with representatives of financial institutions, fraud victims, state leaders and affected community members, the Treasury Department held training sessions for state and local law enforcement on detecting and investigating fraud. The department continues to support federal, state and local law enforcement with data the department said is essential in generating new leads, investigating fraud and dismantling fraud schemes.
“When greed meets negligence, the American people suffer,” Bessent said. “Under President Trump and Vice President Vance’s leadership, Treasury stopped nearly $190 million in funds tied to overseas fraud and returned more than $100 million to U.S. victims. We are working with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud to help prevent this kind of abuse from happening again, in Minnesota or anywhere else.”
Recently, Salim Said, a co-conspirator in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. That case resulted from an investigation conducted by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations.
Officials said Said owned the Safari Restaurant, which was utilized as an alleged food distribution site during the pandemic. Court records show that Said participated in a scheme to defraud the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future,
Said was the owner of Safari Restaurant, which was utilized as an alleged food distribution site. As determined at trial, Said participated in a scheme to defraud $49 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future of $49 million. He was convicted at trial on 21 counts related to wire fraud, money laundering, bribery and conspiracy.
From 2021 to 2025, U.S. financial institutions reported more than $8 billion wire payments sent from U.S.-based money service businesses at the direction of foreign agents, which were suspicious and could have helped facilitate transnational transactions.
The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert to financial institutions to watch for more suspicious activities involved certain cross-border payments involving MSBs. Officials said bad actors may exploit certain MSBs to move money through U.S. financial systems while obscuring who the ultimate beneficiaries are. Additionally, the agency said, some fraudsters may exploit charities and non-profit organizations to facilitate terrorist financing, fraud and other illicit activity.
Those schemes include forming sham charities where bad actors falsely advertise a legitimate purpose for charity but use funds for illicit activity, engaging in fraud schemes that falsely advertise a legitimate purpose for the charity or non-profit, but instead fund bad actors’ lifestyle; and engaging in embezzlement where charity and non-profit insiders abuse their position of trust to steal money.