(TheProudRepublic.com) – Public scandals implicating Democrat vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz are showing no sign of subsiding as a US House of Representatives committee has subpoenaed him over a case of alleged massive financial fraud.
The subpoena for Kamala Harris’s running mate, who is Minnesota’s governor, is part of an investigation into allegations of significant financial mismanagement involving a nonprofit organization in his state during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nonprofit, accused of misappropriating as much as $250 million, has become a focal point of scrutiny, Newsmax reports.
The committee, led by Republican US Rep. Virginia Foxx from North Carolina, extended the subpoena not only to Governor Walz but also to several other key figures.
These include Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Agriculture Inspector General Phyllis Fong, according to a report from The Hill.
The controversy centers around the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future (FOF), which has been implicated in a fraud scheme by the Justice Department.
According to allegations, 70 individuals linked to FOF engaged in fraudulent activities by creating fictitious identities for children to claim reimbursements for meals that were never provided.
Of those accused, 18 have already entered guilty pleas, and an additional five were convicted in June, as reported by NBC News.
Representative Foxx highlighted concerns in her letter to Governor Walz.
“Statements in the press by you and your representatives indicate that you and other executive officers were involved, or had knowledge of, MDE’s [Minnesota Department of Education’s] administration of the FCNP [Federal Child Nutrition Program] and responsibilities and actions regarding the massive fraud,” she stated.
Governor Walz has been given a deadline of September 18 to submit the requested information to the committee, shedding light on his and his administration’s involvement or awareness of the mismanagement.
Further complicating matters, a state audit report released in June criticized the Minnesota Education Department’s oversight of the Feeding Our Future program.
The report suggests that the department’s lackadaisical approach and certain omissions directly facilitated the fraudulent activities.
NBC News outlined that the state’s education officials were responsible for supervising federal initiatives that reimburse organizations like FOF for distributing free meals to children.
However, the audit explicitly mentioned that this oversight was “inadequate.”
In response to the audit, Commissioner Jett, the top education official in the state, acknowledged the severity of the misconduct but shifted the blame away from state officials to those directly involved in the fraud.
Copyright 2024, TheProudRepublic.com
