How much money did the somalis steal in minnisota
Executive summary
There is no single, legally settled dollar figure for “how much money the Somalis stole in Minnesota”; federal prosecutors and news organizations have produced a range of estimates as investigations expanded, with concrete DOJ tallies of named schemes adding to roughly $822 million while senior prosecutors have warned the total could exceed $1 billion and some political actors have cited still larger, more speculative sums [1] [2] [3]. Multiple reporting outlets emphasize that the final amount remains under active investigation and that public figures vary by source and methodology [4] [5].
1. The most-cited concrete subtotal: about $822 million from identified schemes
Reporting that aggregates Justice Department totals for named programs — Feeding Our Future, autism-related billing, Housing Stabilization Services and others — has produced a working subtotal of approximately $822 million in alleged fraud tied to Minnesota social-service programs, a figure widely reported by local media and attributed to DOJ case work [1].
2. Prosecutors’ broader caution: “over $1 billion” is a defensible prosecutorial estimate
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota, including acting U.S. attorney Joseph H. Thompson, have cautioned that when investigations are complete the amount could exceed $1 billion; fact-checking outlets and major papers cite Thompson’s public statements that the probe might uncover fraud “over $1 billion,” reflecting prospective findings beyond the currently tallied schemes [2] [5].
3. Much wider ranges and political amplification — from hundreds of millions to billions
Outside observers and political actors have amplified still larger totals: some conservative outlets and GOP officials have referenced figures as high as “more than $9 billion” by extrapolating vulnerabilities across many programs or citing the portion of federal funds at risk, while think tanks and commentators have cited minimums such as $250 million tied to specific pandemic-era food aid frauds [6] [7]. These higher estimates often mix different categories of funds (payments made, funds at risk, and alleged stolen dollars) and therefore should not be read as settled sums of convicted theft [3] [7].
4. Why the numbers diverge: differing definitions, program scopes and stages of investigation
Disagreement flows from technical differences: some figures count amounts paid to providers in high-risk programs since 2018 (roughly $18 billion in federal funds for 14 programs, of which prosecutors said “half or more” might have been taken), while others tally only currently indicted schemes or amounts DOJ has formally alleged in charging documents — and still others are political extrapolations or media aggregates rather than court-admitted restitution totals [3] [1] [2].
5. What independent fact‑checks and major outlets conclude: no definitive total yet
Fact-checking organizations and investigative papers conclude the total remains unsettled and evolving: Snopes notes the total has yet to be determined and cautions against simple comparisons to unrelated fraud prosecutions, while The New York Times and other outlets describe a “staggering” and still-unfolding scandal that has produced large but not yet final tallies [4] [5]. That uncertainty matters because political actors on all sides have used high-end estimates to advance policy agendas, from immigration restrictions to administrative critiques [8] [6].
6. Bottom line for readers: a range, not a single number — likely hundreds of millions to multiple billions depending on method
The best short answer grounded in current reporting is that named DOJ tallies of identified schemes sum to roughly $822 million, federal prosecutors have warned the total may top $1 billion once investigations conclude, and other estimates that cite billions (up to and beyond $9 billion) reflect broader extrapolations or program-level totals rather than adjudicated stolen amounts; independent fact-checkers and major news organizations emphasize that the definitive stolen-dollar figure is not yet established [1] [2] [3] [4].