A Somalian lawmaker told the Daily Caller the Biden administration ignored billions of dollars in U.S. aid fraud, a scandal Trump officials said they have taken steps to address.
The Trump administration’s crackdown on Somali fraud has expanded beyond Minnesota and other states as U.S. and Somalian officials document a fraud scandal in the African country. Somalian lawmaker Dr. Abdillahi Hashi Abib shared 16 letters with the Caller documenting an estimated $3.2 to $3.6 billion in direct and indirect taxpayer fraud.
The letters were shared with members of the Somali government and at least some members of the U.S. government between Feb. 2, 2023, and July 14, 2024. Department of State and Treasury Department spokespeople told the Caller that the Biden administration sent money to Somalia without addressing rampant fraud cases.
“Somalia has long been a black hole of poorly overseen U.S. assistance,” a State Department spokesperson told the Caller. “The Biden administration dumped billions of dollars into assistance to Somalia with few restrictions, leading to dozens of well-documented instances of aid diversion, theft and corruption.”