#news 'Ghost Student' Fraudsters who stole tens of millions from Federal Student Aid, have been identified as Somali migrants
Federal investigations revealed that the perpetrators behind Minnesota's $12.5 million "ghost student" scam— are migrants from Somalia.
The migrants enrolled fake students or stolen identities in colleges to steal the federal aid like Pell Grants. They never attended a class and pocketed the money.
The scheme prompted Education Secretary Linda McMahon to write a letter to Governor Tim Walz, blasted him for allowing the massive fraud in the state and called on him to resign.
"You have been Minnesota’s Governor since 2019. During that time, your careless lack of oversight and abuse of the welfare system has attracted fraudsters from around the world, especially from Somalia, to establish a beachhead of criminality in our country. "
"As President Trump put it, you have turned Minnesota into a ‘fraudulent hub of money laundering activity.’"
"Given your dereliction of the office entrusted to you by Minnesotans, I implore you to resign and make way for more capable leadership"
In the letter McMahon said almost 2,000 "ghost" students were found in his state alone.
"We call these fraudsters ‘ghost students’ because they were not ID-verified and often did not live in the United States, or they simply did not exist."
"In Minnesota, 1,834 ghost students were found to have received $12.5 million in taxpayer-funded grants and loans. They collected checks from the federal government, shared a small portion of the money with the college, and pocketed the rest — without attending the college at all."
