Treasury, IRS Crack Down on Somali Fund Transfers While Probing Massive Fraud Ring

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the Oval Office of the White House on Nov. 21, 2025. Evan Vucci/AP PhotoTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Dec. 12 that his agency soon will subject certain money-transfer businesses to “enhanced reporting requirements” to enable greater scrutiny of “funds going to areas of concern, such as Somalia.” In addition, some money-transfer businesses will be receiving “notices of investigations,” which will include IRS review, he said.Bessent gave that update 11 days after the Treasury Department began probing allegations that Somali welfare fraudsters in Minnesota were transferring ill-gotten gains to their native land, where terrorists allegedly take a slice of those funds. Bessent launched that probe shortly after City Journal, a publication of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, released an investigative report titled, ““The Largest Funder of Al-Shabaab Is the Minnesota Taxpayer.”