Fraud continues to be a feature, of Minnesota’s state government, and even something state Democrats apparently seek to reward.

According to the Washington Reporter, Minnesota Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan, who currently serves as the state’s lieutenant governor, once awarded an “Outstanding Refugee” honor to a woman who has since been charged in connection with the massive $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scandal that rocked Minnesota earlier this year. It gets even worse as Flanagan’s Department of Human Services reportedly awarded the woman the recognition even after the state had previously revoked her child-care license for providing “false and misleading information.” 

In 2021, Ayan Farah Abukar received an Entrepreneurship Award, which recognizes people who contribute to their communities through business, the arts, or education. Abukar operated a child-care nonprofit that claimed it was feeding 6,400 children a day, multiple times a day. The alleged reality, however, was dramatically different. 

Prosecutors say she stole roughly $5.7 million in taxpayer money to bankroll a lavish lifestyle, spending millions on real estate, including a sprawling 37-acre commercial property in Lakeville, and hundreds of thousands more on an airplane in Nairobi, Kenya. The allegations do not end there. Abukar also allegedly funneled more than $330,000 to an employee of Feeding Our Future. 

The Washington Reporter alleges that Flanagan handed out the award despite a growing list of red flags surrounding both the nonprofit and its owner.

Recommended
We Are So Tired of the Loudmouth Quitters Kurt Schlichter Stephen Miller Made an Eye-Opening Claim About Fraud and the Federal Budget Amy Curtis

This comes as Flanagan and Republican Michele Tafoya are locked in a neck-and-neck Senate race.