As Republicans make Minnesota’s elections ground zero for their focus on fraud, an award that Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, the Democrats’ nominee for Minnesota’s open Senate seat, bestowed in 2021 is under renewed scrutiny, after the Washington Reporter uncovered disturbing details about its recipient.
In 2021, Flanagan’s Department of Human Services (DHS) awarded an “Outstanding Refugee” entrepreneurship award to a fraudster who ripped off taxpayers to the tune of $5.7 million. In 2021, Ayan Farah Abukar, was awarded an “Entrepreneurship Award, which recognizes individuals who contribute to their communities in business, the arts or education,” by Flanagan’s department.
Since then, Abukar has also been charged in connection with the sprawling $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scandal, which Michele Tafoya — the GOP nominee who is facing Flanagan in November — is highlighting, including in interviews with the Reporter.
While many revelations about Abukar emerged after she won Minnesota’s award, Flanagan gave her the honor despite the fact that Minnesota’s Department of Human Services had already revoked her child care license for “providing false and misleading information.” Abukar has since pled guilty to wire fraud. But a 2022 report by the Minnesota Reformer poses problems for Flanagan, given the timeline.
“Even as the state was lauding her service to the community, Abukar’s nonprofit was claiming to feed 6,400 children per day, multiple times per day, via what federal prosecutors now say was a fraud-riddled federal child nutrition program,” the Reformer found.
Instead of feeding vulnerable children, Abukar allegedly siphoned off $5.7 million in taxpayer money to fund a lavish lifestyle, spending millions on real estate, including a massive 37-acre commercial site in Lakeville, and dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy an airplane in Nairobi, Kenya. On top of that, she funneled over $330,000 in kickbacks to a Feeding Our Future employee.
Despite the trail of red flags surrounding the non-profit and its leadership, Flanagan turned a blind eye for years while handing out accolades to fraudsters. Republicans like Tafoya have argued for months that the buck stops not only with Gov. Tim Walz (D., Minn.), who retired amidst the fraud scandal roiling his state, but also with Flanagan.
For her part, Flanagan has used Minnesota’s Somali community as surrogates on the trail; at one point, Flanagan donned a hijab at a press conference in a show of solidarity with Somali fraudsters. But Flanagan’s deep ties to Minnesota’s growing fraud crisis continue to multiply.
Nimco Ahmedl, Flanagan’s friend of 25 years, was standing directly next to her at the press conference, and is now herself under active investigation for running fraudulent autism centers.
Flanagan also fundraised alongside the state’s Medicaid medical director, who is also engulfed in fraud oversight failures.
“As federal investigators continue to unravel the largest COVID-19 relief fraud scheme in the nation, Minnesota taxpayers are left asking a simple question,” a Senate GOP source told the Reporter. “How many more ‘outstanding awards’ will Flanagan hand out to federal convicts before someone is held accountable?”
