Minneapolis Police chief apologizes to Somalis after they were linked to health and childcare scam

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara issued a public apology to the leaders of the city’s Somali community after remarks he made during a recent meeting sparked backlash amid a sprawling fraud investigation. His statement came as the state and federal authorities continue to probe alleged misuse of a government-funded program.

Police chief's apology to the Somali community

Minneapolis Police Chief O’Hara apologized to the Somali community a month ago after the discovery of the billion-dollar fraud.

He said in a statement, “The Somali community here in Minneapolis has been welcoming and has shown love towards me, and I appreciate it. Over the last three years, we have been working together to try and address some of the real serious problems that we have in our community."

"We have to be honest at times with the problems that we’re having in our community, and we need our community to help us fix those problems together because it’s real and it’s serious."

"At the same time, if people have taken anything that I have said out of context in a way that’s caused harm, I apologize, and I’m sorry for that because that’s not my intention at all.”

Nativity analogy on immigration raids

Later in December, O’Hara invoked the nativity story to attack the Trump Administration’s immigration raids, using his leftist background to defend the illegal aliens.

“It’s especially personal to me, having been raised a Catholic, to be in a Christian church this morning as we are approaching Christmas,” O’Hara said.

“And, I cannot help but think of what is happening in our city today, and how that echoes with how outsiders have been treated for thousands of years. How Mary and Joseph themselves were considered outsiders and forced to stay in a barn.”

FBI reveals progress in Minnesota fraud case

In a lengthy X post, the FBI director Kash Patel shared insights into what the department had discovered so far regarding the ongoing fraud case in Minnesota.

Patel said that so far, the FBI had 'dismantled' a $250 million fraud scheme, which led to 78 indictments and 57 convictions so far.

Patel named some of the defendants as Abdiwahab Ahmed Mohamud, Ahmed Ali, Hussein Farah, Abdullahe Nur Jesow, Asha Farhan Hassan, Ousman Camara, and Abdirashid Bixi Dool.

He said that each of them was charged with several crimes, including 'wire fraud,' 'money laundering,' and 'conspiracy.'

He added that the criminals didn’t just engage in 'historic crime' but tried to 'subvert' justice.

Patel revealed that Abdimajid Mohamed Nur and others were also charged with attempted bribery. The FBI director revealed that they tried to bribe a juror with '$120,000 in cash.'

They then pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 10 years and had to also pay $48 million in restitution.