UPDATE On May 15, 2018, Scott Stillman, a former DHS fraud investigator and digital forensics expert, testified before the Minnesota Senate Health and Human Services Reform Policy and Finance Committee that Minnesota’s child care subsidy program was being “victimized by organized crime.”
He testified about a dramatic increase in cash declarations — totaling around $100 million — being flown out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) to regions in the Middle East and Africa, including areas with known terror networks. He demanded a federal investigation into whether $100 million in taxpayer funds had been diverted to foreign terror networks.
In his role analyzing digital evidence — such as computers, cloud storage, and cell phones — Stillman uncovered wire transfers to multiple bank accounts, detailed plans and instructions, funds routed to foreign countries, and photos of prominent individuals. These findings raised “grave concerns” for national security, he said.
He recounted tracking “individuals overseas using their phones to communicate with compounds in the desert while operating DHS daycare businesses for months,” a discovery he said that kept him and fellow law enforcement officials awake at night.
Some reports of his testimony included assertions that politicians tried to impede evidence use because of campaign contributions. The state’s DHS is part of the state’s executive branch. Tim Walz was sworn in as governor in January 2019. The majority of this wave of frauds happened on his watch, data show.