The Minnesota report says Walz knew about the fraud, detailing the alleged retaliation
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A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) said he has been raising red flags about fraud in the state since 2019, but has faced endless retaliation, calling Gov.
Faye Bernstein, who has worked for Minnesota’s DHS for two decades in contract administration and compliance, said she was the subject of a “smear” campaign for trying to inform leadership of illegal contracting practices. He said he was called a “racist” and his work was reduced.
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A report from the Minnesota Department of Human Services said the backlash said she raised her concerns about fraud with the governor’s office, but faced retaliation as a thank you. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
“There’s an ongoing effort to block it, to shut it down. And it’s impossible to win,” Bernstein said on “Saturday America.”
Federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion has been stolen through a network of criminals masquerading as child care centers, food programs and health clinics. Most of those charged, so far, in the ongoing investigation are complicit Minnesotans are Somali.
Rather than getting credit for speaking out about irregularities in the contract process, Bernstein wrote in a letter obtained exclusively by “Saturday America” that the “almost unbearable retaliation” he faced included “the illegal entry of all property owned or leased by DHS” and that he was investigated “at great cost to the government.”
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A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Human Resources said the criticism she faced when she tried to increase fraud reporting was “insurmountable.” (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Bernstein said he has raised concerns internally and taken them to “the Governor’s Office and external oversight bodies,” but the response has always been the same.
“I was actually a terrible employee,” he said, and said he informed leaders in so many departments so many times that he was embarrassed to sound like “a broken record.”
“Sometimes it was just embarrassing to continue with this. So to say that the leadership didn’t know, or the governor didn’t know – I can tell you that is a double lie.”
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Bernstein said he identifies as a Democrat and only votes for Democrats, but the Minnesota fraud was not invented by Republicans, dismissing Walz’s description of the allegations as “hypocrisy.”
“I see this every day… and it’s not fake. And as far as me being a Democrat, right now, we have to have a governor who is willing to deal with this. And it doesn’t matter if they’re Republican or Democrat.”
Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
