Unique: Bessent tells Rufo — 'When the bear lure snaps,' Minnesota fraudsters and complicit officers will face justice

[ad_1] <img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="480b77113445f04bce30d48980e05670" id="5b637" src="https://www.conservativereview.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWJsYXplLmNvbS9tZWRpYS1saWJyYXJ5L2ltYWdlLmpwZz9pZD02MjcxMzI4NSZhbXA7d2lkdGg9MTI0NSZhbXA7aGVpZ2h0PTcwMCZhbXA7Y29vcmRpbmF0ZXM9MCwwLDAsMCIsImV4cGlyZXNfYXQiOjE4MjQyNzI2Nzd9.wmVlLUKEdaZ3xW7iFUAsu7KNATgpD0PdNWvuhEz4aTU/image.jpg" /> Whereas fraud rings in Minnesota's Somali group have been beneath federal investigation for years, it was investigative journalist and BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo’s reporting that introduced the billion-dollar scandals to nationwide consideration. Again in November 2025, Rufo revealed a report titled “The Largest Funder of Al-Shabaab Is the Minnesota Taxpayer,” wherein he and co-author Ryan Thorpe alleged that billions of taxpayer funds had been being stolen by means of schemes in Minneapolis’ Somali group and that thousands and thousands of these funds had been being funneled to the Al-Shabaab terror group in Somalia.

Rufo's reporting sparked huge federal motion, together with revoking Non permanent Protected Standing for Somalis, surging Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, freezing child-care funds, and ramping up prosecutions. Most notably, it led Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to go to Minnesota in January 2026 and launch main FinCEN probes into hawala companies, IRS audits, and enhanced switch reporting.

On this unique BlazeTV interview with Rufo, Bessent shares what his workforce’s investigations have revealed about Minnesota’s Somali fraud operations and what steps the Treasury is taking to make sure it stops.

Bessent says his workforce’s investigations confirmed that the fraud schemes had been “larger than anybody thought” and that cash — both extra government-issued funds or stolen funds — are certainly being despatched illegally in a foreign country.

One optimistic results of the investigations into Minnesota’s fraud rings, nonetheless, is that they are going to present a “mannequin” for future investigations within the different 49 states.

“Simply due to the inhabitants sizes — California, Illinois, New York — that what is going on on [in Minnesota] is a microcosm of what is going on on there. And it is like somebody on the panel stated at this time: Advantages have been became companies. It's a cottage business of instructing folks how you can kind a number of LLCs, how you can recreation the system, how you can transfer cash round,” says Bessent, pledging to “observe the cash” and discover “recoveries” for cheated Individuals.

Rufo calls these predominantly Somali-orchestrated fraud rings Minnesota’s “open secret.” Fraudsters had been profitable largely as a result of they knew that the cultural normal of “Minnesota good” and politicians’ “worry of being referred to as racist” would outcome within the turning of blind eyes in every single place.

“What do you suppose the fitting perspective must be as you have a look at these frauds transferring ahead?” he asks.

“Clearly the governor's workplace doesn't wish to do investigations. So we simply need the information. We wish to see the place they lead, and we wish to put the dangerous guys in jail,” says Bessent.

Additional Minnesota’s soft-on-crime insurance policies that “incentivize” criminality have to be addressed. “You could possibly steal lots of of hundreds, thousands and thousands of {dollars}, and beneath the Minnesota legal guidelines, you won't even get jail time. You may get a sequence of paroles,” Bessent provides.

“We now have the power to herald IRS enforcement, they usually do not monkey round. So the inducement goes to be to cease this.”

Rufo then posed the query that conservatives nationwide are eagerly awaiting a solution to: Will we lastly see any huge names face justice?

“From [Gov. Tim Walz] on down seems to be at a minimal to have turned a blind eye. There are rumors circulating round this constructing proper now that in reality some have been complicit in these schemes. Is that one thing your workplace is trying into?” he asks.

“That is a part of following the cash. There are evidently some disturbing tapes of AG Ellison in conferences with individuals who donated to him calling for political favors to cease the investigations. So we'll see,” says Bessent.

“And Chris, I can assure you when the bear lure snaps, we'll get these of us.”

To listen to the remainder of Rufo’s unique interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, watch the video above.

Need extra from Rufo & Lomez? To take pleasure in extra of the information by means of the anthropological lens of Christopher Rufo and Lomez, subscribe to BlazeTV — the most important multi-platform community of voices who love America, defend the Structure, and reside the American dream.