Massive Fraud Infuriates Minnesotans, Lawmakers, but Top Official Sees No Quick Fix

The state’s budget chief told a committee that her employees ‘work as hard as we can’ to monitor funds, but ’state government is about as complex as it gets.’

Minnesota state Rep. Isaac Schultz, a Republican, speaks at a meeting of the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan. 21, 2026. Janice Hisle/The Epoch Times

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Erin Campbell, Minnesota’s top financial officer, told a state anti-fraud committee at the state Capitol on Jan. 21 that “unfortunately, there’s not a ‘silver bullet’ to stop the type of fraud that we’ve seen in our public-assistance programs.”

The lack of a quick fix is largely because “state government is about as complex as it gets,” Campbell told the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee.