Monday, October 12, 2026

Government Tax Fraud And Corruption, Part 20: Minnesota To Florida and Back To Minnesota,The National Fraud Crisis Continues

 We are continuing our discussion time to review the massive amount of criminal fraud that has infected government programs for many, many years.  The outstanding investigations recently done,  and still being  done, by independent journalist,  Nick Shirley, has started a cascading identification of the numerous fraud instances at all  levels of government  across the country.


It is unbelievable how many billions of dollars have been wasted and are currently being wasted and siphoned off by all types of criminal activities. And while it is amazing how much taxpayer wealth has been wasted and lost, possibly even more amazing is the reality that through the decades the political class and the government entities they overlook were unable or unwilling to stop the fraud.


1)It seems that when  ever we talk about defrauding government programs and  the taxpayers that fund them we always seem to circle back to Minnesota, the premier center for government fraud:


  • The first big fraud case to break in Minnesota was  the so-called  Feeding Our Future government funded program during the  Covid era.

  • About $250 million were  defrauded from taxpayers and dozens of people  have pleaded  guilty or have been found  guilty in court.

  • And somehow, the governor, Tim Walz, and  the state attorney general, Keith Ellison, either never saw it happening or allowed it to happen.

  • The fact that many, many state government  whistleblowers went public with the fraud they were witnessing, often  at the expense of their jobs and careers, makes it unlikely that Walz and  Ellison  did not know what was going  on.

  • A House of Representatives Oversight Committee report found that Walz and Ellison and others “turned a blind  eye to rampant fraud and retaliated against state employees” while the fraud dollars walked out of the  door.

  • The  committee estimated that almost 500 Minnesota  state employees accused Walz  of  ignoring the fraud they saw every  day on their  jobs but their warning went unheeded for many years.

  • The report went on to accuse Walz and Ellison of managing the fallout of the  fraud rather than stopping it.

  • The Feeding Our Future was just a drop in the  ocean since it now appears that upwards of $9 billion may have been lost to fraud in Minnesota.


And Walz  still refuses to face the  reality that he was useless in protecting taxpayer wealth.  A reporter recently asked  Walz if the  Minnesota Somali  community should hold itself  responsible since a lot of the defrauding has been associated with that community. Rather than answer that straightforward question, he did  what many liberal politicians do, he tried to deflect with a racism defense:  "If that were the case, there's a lot of white men who should be holding a lot of white men accountable for the crimes that they have committed."


Pathetic leadership from a pathetic politician. And the American  taxpayers and Americans  in need got shortchanged and defrauded.


2)Let’s leave Minnesota and head down to Florida:


  • In  late September, a Florida Federal court session  accepted a  guilty  plea from Hasan Seyhun.

  • He pleaded guilty to  operating a fraud scheme that submitted millions  of  dollars in false claims for reimbursement from Health and Human Services.

  • He personally grossed over $4 million from the fraud.

  • During Covid, he claimed that his false company did a lot of  Covid  testing  that was never done  but that did not  stop him  and his company from  submitting claims to the government‘s Covid programs.

  • He has agreed to pay back over $4 million  and is just one of the con-defendants to plead  guilty or found guilty of  fraud in  this scheme.


Covid, along with Medicare and Medicaid, was one to  the  worst government programs when it came to getting defrauded. So sad that the government and the politicians who operate it were so negligent and inept in protecting  taxpayer wealth.


3)Vice President JD Vance has been leading the fight  against the  defrauding of Federal government programs so let’s check in with him to see  what other successes his anti-fraud task force  has had,  what fraud  schemes he has  uncovered:


  • His  task force and the General Services  Administration  have uncovered  over  $1.2 billion in just Covid fraud.

  • One  disgusting  reality they uncovered is  that the Federal government under Biden continued to dispense taxpayer money via Covid  programs after the pandemic was over.

  • This pipeline of fraud  continued until Trump shut it down,  five years after the pandemic.

  • The total fraud uncovered so far including Covid  and other government programs is now  estimated to be almost $246  billion.

  • Another $63 billion in fraud has been blocked before the taxpayer money was dispensed and another $59 billion is being  sought via indictments  and  settlements  with  fraudsters.

  • Medicare and Medicaid  were  the  two major targets of fraud, likely to  have sent out over $96 billion in fraud payments.

  • We now know that a  lot of the fraudsters that stole were foreigners, not American citizens, and the taxpayer money they stole went out of the country.


The  fraud under Biden and previous administrations is mindblowing. And Americans in need, homeless, hungry, and sick,  were  denied  the full amount  of aid they could have gotten if  it  wasn't being  stolen from just about every government  program.


4)But it is not  just Medicare, Medicaid and Covid programs  that leaked billions  and billions of dollars over the decades:


  • A basic premise of Obama Care was that American taxpayers  would help subsidize the  health insurance premiums of the less wealthy members of society so that they could finally afford health insurance.

  • But Obama Care audits and  controls apparently weren't working efficiently since Vance’s anit-fraud taskforce has cut 760,000 Obama Care accounts  from people  that were not entitled to the  subsidies  as outlined in the law  since they had  too much income.

  • These accounts cost the American taxpayer billions of  dollars  in  false subsidies.

  • This  should save  the Federal government  and Federal government $2.2 billion a year.

  • As another indictment of Biden’s  incompetence, during the Biden years Obama  Care enrollment more  than  doubled  from 10 million to 22 million, many years after  Obama Care was enacted, obviously padded with ineligible customers.

  • Recent  analysis  estimated  that at least half of those new 12 million  enrollments were  fraudulent, indicating  that Vance’s  Obama Care fraud is  just getting started.

  • Possibly a million enrollments  did not  even present their Social Security  number when applying, a blatant violation of the Obama Care law, but they got the subsidies  anyway.

  • There is also  a good chance that a lot of Obama Care immigrants are also not entitled to Obama Care money, as stipulated in the law.

  • Forty Obama  Care insurance agents and brokers have already been identified  enrolling ineligible customers to Obama  Care, costing taxpayers $45 million via 50,000 illegal enrollments.

  • And that is just the start since the administration  has already cut off 66 insurance agents from the program and  has  plans to  terminate another 469 agents  who signed  up bogus customers.

  • Brian  Blase, the founder of  the Paragon  Health Institute,  is not a big  fan of the whole Obama  Care disaster: “The Trump administration actions to suspend brokers engaged in these activities and disenroll phantoms is welcome and will save taxpayers billions of dollars each year.” 

  • The closer scrutiny now estimates that possibly a whopping  third  of all Obama Car enrollees are fraudulent.


Just another government program that is a disaster. As readers of this blog know, we have been critics of Obama Care since day one. They tried to solve

 a public problem with an economic solution, not  a public health solution. Thus, it was not a surprise it failed. And that failure continues over a decade later.


5)It seems appropriate that we begin and end this  discussion  on  government fraud  back in Minnesota:


  • Last year Federal immigration officials came into  Minnesota with numbers to find  and deport illegal immigrants  that swarmed into the  country under Biden.

  • State politicians like governor Tim Walz were vehemently against the apprehension  and deportation of illegal immigrants, many of whom  were defrauding taxpayers.

  • In keeping with Minnesota politicians who  care more about immigrants  than  citizens,  the Minnesota Hennepin  County created a $2 million taxpayer  fund to help local businesses who may have  been negatively impacted  by the  illegal immigrant sweep.

  • Hundreds of applications for relief flooded in.

  • If  approved, the loan  applicants  would get  loans that ragged from $3,000 to  $10,000.

  • Of the 300 or so applications  that were received by the county, 200 were immediately flagged  as bogus, i.e. fake businesses.

  • .County commissioner, Jeff  Lunde,  was  surprised and disgusted with the attempted  fraud:  "The fact that people, after all this fraud, felt that they could apply and get away with it, I think it's a problem because clearly there's no fear out there." 

  • Fortunately, the program  was stopped before any taxpayer dollars were sent out.

  • A lot of  the applications used the  same  boilerplate  information across different fake businesses.

  • Fortunately,  when  county employees followed  up with visits to the addresses on the applications they found no business at the  address location.


From Minnesota to Washington  DC  to Florida, to the rest of  the country, the fraud that was allowed to go on for so long is very sad.  Given the huge magnitude  of  the obvious  and widespread fraud, it makes you wonder if  the American political class  allowed it to happen because somehow, some way  they profited from the defrauding  of the American taxpayer.


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Thursday, October 8, 2026

The Race To Bankruptcy Court: Mayor Katie Wilson Keeps Seattle In The Lead

 Let’s check in with our discussion on which  city or state government is going to  get to bankruptcy court first. Our primary cities in the race to bankruptcy include New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and newcomer, Seattle. The state governments that we think are soon heading into bankruptcy include New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California with Washington state a newcomer to the race.


The reason for returning to this topic is because there have been some significant developments in the race to bankruptcy court, specifically Seattle. However, before reviewing the latest news, let’s review how these cities and states got themselves into this financial death spiral position to begin with:


  • A government entity keeps expanding its budget, eventually putting pressure on the tax revenue stream it receives. 

  • At some point, rather than cut government spending or make its programs more efficient financially, the politicians in charge raise taxes to meet the ever growing government expenditures.

  • The raising of taxes causes some residents and businesses to leave the city or state for less tax burdensome areas, reducing the tax base and reducing the revenue stream.

  • Rather than cut expenses and become more efficient to match the reduced tax revenue stream, politicians in the above cities or states raise the tax burden even more.

  • This causes more residents and businesses to flee the city or state, further reducing the tax base and tax revenue stream.

  • At some point politicians panic and raise taxes more and start cutting vital government services (e.g. police, fire, education) in order to try and balance government spending against the shrinking tax base and revenue stream.

  • The reduction in quality of government services in particular and quality of life in general drives more residents and businesses out of the area.

  • Eventually, the expenses, costs and financial liabilities outstrip the reduced tax stream and bankruptcy occurs.


Okay that’s the process. Let’s see  what is going on  in the newest and possibly the  our strongest contender for bankruptcy court,  Seattle.


1)As we have recently often discussed, it  is our view that Seattle  is now the leader in the race to bankruptcy court:


  • The  downtown  area  business office vacancy rate is around 35%,  the  highest in the  country as businesses abandon the city because of sky high taxes, high  homelessness  rate, and high violent crime rate.

  • As businesses and residents  leave the city, the tax base shrinks and tax  revenue steadily declines,  further damaging the quality of  life in the city.

  • The mayor, Katie Wilson, always  seems to be overwhelmed  and useless  as crises  after crises  erupts.

  • Top business leaders in the city grew so frustrated that they all signed  a letter  that was sent  to Wilson, basically telling her to  get her act together from a public safety and quality of life perspective.

  • The  city recently raised the  minimum wage rate for people working in the city, a move that is sure to drive out small, middle  and larger sized companies as the labor component of their business becomes too large, all of which  will result in fewer  jobs for the  citizens of  the  city and even lower tax collections.

But this economic ignorance on Wilson’s part and other city politicians should not come as a surprise, given what they already did to wages  and the severe economic negative fallout from their actions:

  • In  2024, Seattle doubled the base delivery pay for so-called gig-workers.

  • Overnight, the salary line went from $5.37 to $12.52 per gigwork task.

  • Under the old rate, delivery folks got  their base salary plus any tips  for their service.

  • But quite  quickly that plan  did not  hold economic water.

  • Total driver  earnings over the following  months barely moved. Despite the more than doubling  of the base wage rate.

  • DoorDash reported a  delivery volume drop  of  30,000 deliveries and a loss of $1 million within two weeks  of the new wage rate taking effect.

  • The negative effects were multifold: delivery driver earnings barely changed, tips got smaller because the cost of delivery got higher as a result of the  higher minimum wage getting bigger, and customers ordered less because the higher cost of  delivery further  drove down  demand  and wages.

  • This was because DoorDash added  a  so-call “regulator fee”  of $4.99 per delivery while Uber added a $5 "local operating fee” to account for their higher  labor costs.

  • These fees drove down demand which in turn limited any upside to delivery folks.

  • Uber Eats reported similar demand drops akin to  the 30,000 fewer  orders DoorDash incurred.

  • Seattle politicians still defended the rule in the face of these economic demand downturns.

  • Analysis by the National Bureau of  Economic Research in conjunction  with Carnegie Mellon University tracked the economic impacts on individual drivers.

  • They tracked  specific delivery drivers earnings before and after the law went into effect and concluded based on their tracking  analysis that the  law did little to increase the take home pay of gig workers for DoorDash and Uber Eats.

  • A Fortune analysis  reached  the same conclusion that while base pay more  than doubled total take  home pay barely moved because of fewer orders and lower tips.

We have  discussed this  economic ignorance of mostly liberal politicians for years in situations  like this like this: businesses raise prices into order  to stay viable and cope with their much higher labor cost, customers pull back  their demand  because of the higher cost, and  the people the law was  supposed to help never get that bump they were  promised. “The good news is that your base wage just doubled, the bad news is that you no longer have a job” or “The good news is that your base  wage  doubled, the bad news  is your take home pay will likely not change.”

And  with the new minimum wage that Seattle just passed getting  ready to be implemented, there will similar types of economic fallout: less hours worked, benefits stripped out so that business owners can cope with the higher  labor  cost, and fewer hours allocated to the higher paid workers, all of which result in little  or no  economic gain. But it will  continue to drive businesses and residents out of the city and the continued  dwindling to the tax  base and tax revenue.

2)So  let's do a Seattle and Mayor Katie Wilson  review:

  • The gig worker base pay increase failed and likely drove businesses out of the city.

  • The new, higher minimum wage will  likely do  the same thing.

  • Businesses have  been fleeing the city  to avoid the Jumpstart tax and other  onerous city taxes, talking employees and their  tax base with  them.

  • Wealthy folks have  also left the city for Florida,  Texas, and Nevada to  avoid the higher and higher taxation.

  • Seattle has one of the highest levels of homelessness and drug addiction in the country.

  • Crime and gang violence is rampant  as  witnessed by the  failed and embarrassing reaction to the shootings during the Bite Of Seattle event.

It is a city in crisis: rampant crime and homelessness, a dwindling tax base, lower lower quality of life, high taxation, etc. One  would hope that Katie Wilson and other city politicians were laser  focused on fixing these horrible problems.  But, alas, as what always happens with politicians, hope is never realized:

  • Rather than  focusing all of  her energy on the city problems and  the stressed out residents, Wilson  recently hosted, not attended, hosted, a panel  discussion and meeting featuring anti-Israel and  anti-capitalist discussions.

  • These two  hateful  positions  were subtopics  under the overall theme of fascism.

  • She hosted a panel that had two  non-citizens  with  her from Canada.

  • It seems that the underlying theory goes something like the following: Christian Zionists (whatever that means) are in cahoots with Silicon Valley billionaires to trigger a nuclear Armageddon so that Jews can build luxury condos in Gaza and build a Third Temple in Jerusalem.

  • According to  the description of this meeting  reported by the Post Millennial, these three characters never provided any proof that this  was going on, just wild and unfounded theories.

  • Wilson used the  panel to put forth her theories on why Seattle is disintegrating  on her watch, deflecting her  inability to govern to “fascism always emerges in moments of systemic crisis to protect elites from the threats of redistribution and accountability.”

  • In other words, it is not her fault Seattle is in trouble, it is the  elites who refuse to give up their wealth.

  • Also involved  in their ridiculous discussion was , of course, climate change, Hurricane Katrina, and red heifers, whatever that means, somehow connecting  all of these things together in  a mishmash of idiocy.

Even if she believes this nonsense, given the sad state of her city, should she not be  worried  about theoretical nonsense and  be laser focused on fixing the everyday problems of her  residents and businesses? Discussing climate change red  heifers,  the Third Temple, Christian  Zionists (again I  have no idea  how that is possible), does nothing  to get  the  homeless city drug addicts treatment, it does nothing to get economic relief to  the beleaguered businesses that are still in her city, it does nothing to reduce the violence of crime in her  city.

She is spending time  hosting  a panel that has no relationship to the everyday problems of her  city. But possibly, maybe she has no idea how to fix her city and  this  theoretical nonsense gives her a comfortable feeling that she  is mastering something even if it has  no positive impact on  anyone  else in Seattle.

As a result  of her  track record of failure and now  this distraction, a focus  on  something totally unrelated  to  the  city's problems, our contention that Seattle will be the next major  city to  go bankrupt looks stronger  everyday.