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News In Focus with Chris LongAuthor: Chris Long
State and National News - Understanding the times II Chronicles 12:32 Language: en Genres: Government, News, Politics Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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John Solomon - Reports on the Columbus Somalian Fraud
Episode 411
Friday, 16 January, 2026
John Solomon - Reports on the Columbus Somalian Fraud Somali Fraud Update: We now know that part of the $700M in cash came directly from Ohio. Columbus Ohio Somali fraudsters transported $130 million in Tax-Payer Dollars to Minnesota.” Two powerful committee chairmen in Congress are moving quickly to investigate why Somali immigrant couriers were moving hundreds of millions of dollars out of U.S. airports in their luggage to overseas destinations the last few years, and whether there is any connection to a massive fraud scheme in Minnesota or terror groups in their native country in Africa. “We're going to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this […] and it will mean subpoenaing these things,” Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Just the News in an interview Thursday. He also revealed that federal agents are probing the massive cash transfers that move through a network centered in the Minneapolis airport. Ohio Reps. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Township, and D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, introduced new child safety and anti-fraud legislation related to publicly funded childcare centers at a Jan. 15 press conference, alongside Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. Williams said that he believes that there are millions of dollars in childcare fraud in the state and the proposed law creates a "simple rule." "If you are using taxpayer money, you will provide attendance, prove services and prove compliance — or you will lose funding and face potential prosecution if we find waste, fraud or abuse" Williams said. To increase fraud enforcement, Williams said that publicly-funded day cares would be required to install internal and external cameras in public areas that can be accessed at any time by the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to conduct visual audits of how many children are in a day care at a given time. He said the bill would also improve the reliability of the attendance-checking ability of the state and prevent providers from signing children in themselves. The state would also be required to immediately suspend public funding from any day care suspected of fraud, and to create a "mandatory enforcement escalation," requiring the state to report any instances of suspected fraud to the Ohio auditor, who can refer cases to the Ohio attorney general if there is prosecutable fraud. "This ensures fraud is not handled internally, like we've seen, and swept under the rug because the department or the administration does not want to have a black eye or appear to demonize a particular community or group," Williams said. Yost said he supports the legislation and that it will provide his office a tool to fight fraud in Ohio and create independence in investigations.
