President Trump’s team just opened a new front in the war on fraud — and Minnesota is ground zero.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traveled to St. Cloud with FBI Director Kash Patel, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald to announce the next phase of a whole-of-government crackdown.
The numbers behind it are staggering.
In his prepared remarks, Bessent said Treasury returned $175 million in payments that would have gone to deceased people, stopped nearly $190 million tied to overseas fraud and returned more than $100 million to American victims.
The U.S. Treasury also said the administration has uncovered more than $260 billion in fraud since January 2025, prevented $72 billion in taxpayer money from going to illicit actors each year and brought enforcement actions involving nearly $60 billion.
Those are not political talking points pulled out of thin air. Treasury’s separate fiscal-year report says its payment-verification system screened more than 1.1 billion federal payments worth roughly $3.7 trillion.
That review identified about 13,500 payments, totaling $175 million, that were headed to deceased individuals. The agency also expanded access to its Do Not Pay data from roughly 4 percent of federal programs to 99 percent.
Minnesota received special attention because federal investigators say the fraud problem there is enormous.
Bessent said FinCEN data have supported law-enforcement efforts that produced 115 arrests and charges, 75 convictions and nearly 3,000 subpoenas across the state since President Trump returned to office.
IRS criminal investigators also conducted activity at several suspected fraud sites the day before the announcement.
Now Treasury is tightening the financial dragnet.
FinCEN issued new information to help banks identify and report suspicious activity involving charities and nonprofits, along with a separate alert about cross-border transactions initiated by money-services businesses. The agency identified more than $8 billion in potentially suspicious foreign-agent-directed payments from 2021 through 2025.
The administration is also making it easier for insiders to report what they know. A new centralized portal at America.gov/fraud will replace the maze of agency tip lines.
Treasury is seeding a $25 million whistleblower incentive program. Tips that lead to a conviction or enforcement action may qualify for rewards of up to $30,000.
The shift is simple: stop fraudulent payments before they leave the government instead of trying to chase the money afterward.
For years, taxpayers watched massive fraud schemes surface only after the cash was gone. President Trump’s team is building the data systems, financial alerts and enforcement partnerships needed to reverse that pattern.
Minnesota is now the proving ground. If the money trail leads through shell companies, sham nonprofits or overseas transfers, the administration is making clear that federal investigators intend to follow it.
The days of paying first and asking questions later are ending.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up. View the original article here.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
