I mainly ask because it makes me curious how much fraud exists in other states - basically are we picking on MN, or are they the exception?
There's a lot of disputes between state and federal authorities about this. The 9B figure is being disputed, and there's a lot of claims that the state has been kept in the dark about it intentionally, with claims that MN GOP House members on fraud investigation committees have been purposely withholding information from the state, forwarding their information instead to federal prosecutors. These House members don't seem to deny this:
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/house-fraud-committee-wi...
https://www.startribune.com/walz-says-theres-no-evidence-of-...
I'm not sure people are really disputing that the fraud happened. I think there are disagreements about the scope of it and about the way in which the investigation has been happening, and the motives for the way in which it has happened.
Here's the whistleblower portal they set up earlier this year for example:
https://mnhouserepublicans.com/whistleblower-portal/
They then forwarded tips to the federal DOJ and not the state.
So are they picking on MN? I don't think the fraud, to the extent it is there, is them picking on them. The way in which this has unfolded might be.
In any event, thank you for the response and links.
The fraudsters knew they were under suspicion, still got money from the state ,sued the state to force them to pay more - claiming racism, won, a judge forced the state to pay them 250m, blatantly spent the money on sports cars (again - knowing they were being investigated), got caught, tried to pay off the jury, the person who tried to pay of the jury stole the bribe money.
The investigation was wrapped up some time ago, but it did not get a lot of attention for obvious political reasons.