Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that multiple money service businesses in Minnesota were under investigation for potentially transferring money stolen from the federal government overseas to Somalia.

Bessent made the comments during a press conference from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area where he announced actions that the Treasury Department and the IRS are taking to crack down on fraud. He said that multiple money service businesses — non-bank financial institutions that transmit money — had been informed that they were under investigation.

“Our citizens have a right to know that their tax dollars are not being diverted to fund acts of global terror, or to fund luxury cars for fraudsters. Democratic Governor Tim Walz has allowed welfare programs and fraud to spiral out of control,” he said. “Billions of dollars intended for hungry children, housing for disabled seniors, and services for children with special needs were diverted to people who cheated the system, some of whom are not even American citizens.”

Bessent said that the IRS and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen), the arm of the Treasury that investigates money laundering and terrorist financing, were looking into whether money fraudulently obtained through welfare programs went to Al-Shabaab, an Islamic terror group in Somalia.

Both agencies are investigating whether financial institutions complied with regulations to detect money laundering and other illicit activities. He did not disclose which money service businesses were under investigation.

“These businesses had an obligation to comply with anti-money laundering laws, and they will be held responsible for any crimes they committed,” he said.

Additionally, Bessent said that banks in Hennepin County, which encompasses Minneapolis, and Ramsey County, home to St. Paul, were being required to submit information about money transferred overseas.

Bessent estimated that around $300 million in funds had been fraudulently taken from the federal government through welfare programs meant to help impoverished children.

When asked by The Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan during the conference if Walz may be potentially wrapped up in the investigation, Bessent said, “It’s clear that Governor Walz has been negligent in his fiduciary duties as the chief executive of the state of Minnesota that this would happen on his watch, and we are actively pursuing all leads to see the level of involvement, whether it’s limited to just negligence and incompetence, or is something more than that.”

.@MaryMargOlohan asks Sec. Bessent what role Tim Walz played in the Somali fraud scandal: @SecScottBessent: “It’s clear that Gov. Walz has been negligent…We are actively pursuing all leads to see the level of involvement whether it’s limited to negligence and incompetence or… pic.twitter.com/AY5IGfprY9

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 9, 2026

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has mobilized multiple departments to investigate alleged widespread fraud in Minnesota, including allegations that millions of taxpayer dollars have been funneled to fraudulent daycares across the state throughout the past ten years.

The Department of Health and Human Services has stopped funding for childcare and other welfare programs to Minnesota while federal law enforcement investigates.

At the beginning of every New Year, journalists, and other flagrant abusers of God’s precious gift of life, make lists of predictions about what will happen in the year to come. Turning their corruption-riddled minds to politics and culture and other topics they know absolutely nothing about, journalists forecast absurd scenarios that would confirm them in all the boneheaded prejudices that made their reporting such utterly useless crap-fountains in the year that just ended. 

But unlike journalists, we at the Daily Wire are committed to telling the truth. And the truth is we have no freaking clue what’s going to happen in the next ten minutes let alone the months ahead. The future’s not ours to see, as Doris Day said, shortly after she let out an ear-piercing scream that startled the assassin so that he only wounded the ambassador, leaving Jimmy Stewart free to find his kidnapped son and knock the kidnapper down a flight of stairs to his death, a conclusion that makes absolutely no sense if you stop and think about it for even a minute.

Where was I? Oh yeah.

Since predicting the future is very popular and since no one knows the future, the Daily Wire has developed a system for forecasting the events of the year that is far more scientifically consistent than any other. Namely, we just make stuff up and hope we get lucky and can create the illusion that we’re much smarter than we are.

So here are my predictions for 2026.

In early March, a tarantula the size of the Chrysler Building will descend on New York City and begin to devour the inhabitants, who will find this a welcome relief from the policies of Zohran Mamdani. President Donald Trump will rush to the scene, armed only with an emerald-encrusted titanium sword he borrowed from Glenn Beck’s collection of titanium swords encrusted with various precious gems. Trump will single-handedly slay the spider, whereupon Democrats will condemn this violation of the arachnid rights guaranteed in our Constitution, and will spend the rest of the month having cocktails and photo ops with sad-looking tarantulas around the country, before heading to local hospitals to be treated for bites. “The View” will dedicate an entire show to the long history of anti-tarantula bias, until a guest tarantula crawls over Sunny Hostin’s hand, causing her to let out a high-pitched shriek that goes on for ten uninterrupted minutes before anyone realizes this is not just her usual commentary. At CBS News, meanwhile, editor-in-chief Bari Weiss will come under fire when she pounds a tarantula to death with a high-heeled shoe before anyone has time to explain to her that it was on its way to be interviewed for “60 Minutes.” And Candace Owens will announce that a spider the size of the Chrysler Building could only have been created by God, proving once again that a Jew is to blame.

In the culture, Netflix Chief of Content Bela Bajaria will proclaim that all married couples in Netflix movies must be mixed race and all children must be homosexual unless they’re transgender in which case they can be heterosexual because that would be homosexual. When Netflix’s audience share sinks to zero percent, Mrs. Bajaria will tell interviewers, “Our pictures are still big. It’s the audience that got small,” and then descend a long staircase declaring, “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille,” before being carted off to a mental institution or to become head of Warner Brothers, depending on how the deal turns out.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will step down, resting on his accomplishments of watching Minneapolis burn to the ground while Somalians bilked American taxpayers out of billions of Somolians. Or possibly Somolians bilked us out of Somalians. Either way, they should both go back where they came from.

Finally, Democrats will take back the House in the mid-terms, and immediately move to impeach Trump for flagrantly causing world peace and American prosperity. Republicans will keep the Senate, but Chuck Schumer will reassure journalists, “The government is still big, it’s the people who got small,” and then descend a staircase declaring, “I’m ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille,” before he’s devoured by a gigantic tarantula.

All right, that last part is just a personal daydream of mine.

* * *

This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “The Andrew Klavan Show.”

Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fifth installment, After That, The Dark, is NOW AVAILABLE. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan.

The views expressed in this satirical piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.