Powerline has been folowing up on this.
POSTED ON JUNE 8, 2018 BY SCOTT JOHNSON IN CRIME, IMMIGRATION, MEDIA, MINNESOTA
RESTATEMENT ON FOZIA ALI
On May 14 our local Fox affiliate (Fox 9) broadcast Jeff Baillon’s striking report “Millions of dollars in suitcases fly out of MSP, but why?” The report drew a connection among “rampant fraud in a massive state program” (i.e., Minnesota’s $250 million a year Child Care Assistance Program funding daycare providers), the locus of this fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community and cash flown overseas in suitcases out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport possibly that may fund the Al Qaeda affiliate al Shabab in Somalia.
The story reverberated in our legislature at the end of the legislative session. Former Department of Human Services investigator Scott Stillman had been one of Baillon’s key sources. Stillman testified in a hastily called state senate hearing. Kim Crockett of the Center of the American Experiment covered the hearing featuring Stillman’s testimony here.
The principal reverberation created by the Fox 9 story, however, is a media backlash. Baillon’s story had gaps in its reporting (Dave Orrick here at the Pioneer Press). Stillman is an unreliable source (Matt Sepic here at Minnesota Public Radio). My favorite story in the backlash featured the ordeal of the Somali daycare providers (brought to us by the Star Tribune, of course). Minnesota Democrats attacked the story with ludicrous comments contributed by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison and intergalactic state legislative superstar and congressional wannabe Ilhan Omar (Lauran Yuen here at MPR.)
It has been my purpose in this series to follow up on Baillon’s story with additional research and reporting. Here is part 1; here is part 2; here is part 3. My own City Journal column on Baillon’s story is “Mogadishu, Minnesota.”
From their comments section
on edit: I am not sure the comment is accurate.
David Sigalow · Partner at Allen, Dyer, Doppelt Gilchrist PA
One has to give Ms. Ali some credit for efficiency, as she managed to steal $1.5 million in less than two years. Yet, as I noted yesterday, upon sentencing, she was ordered to pay a whopping $3000 in restitution over a four-year period (plus $100 in "special assessments").
A few years ago, a wealthy South Florida lawyer was charged with a series of crimes which had netted him millions of dollars. Within 24 hours, the Feds had raided his home, seized his wife's jewelry and anything that appeard to be of value. They raided his law firm and confiscated boxes of documents and every desktop and laptop. They even gave the defendant's daughter and her mother less than 24 hours to pack up their clothes and vacate the nearby house he'd provided for them so the Feds could grab that too.
What did Ms. Ali do with that $1.5 million? Did she buy cars and jewerly? Autographed pictures of Beyonce and Whitney Houston formerly owned by Jesse Jackson Jr.? Kitchen gadgets from QVC? Or, in the alternative, did it just "disappear" overseas? Wire transfers? Suitcases of cash?