Former investigator testifies about DHS official pressuring him to remove fraud from reports

ST. PAUL (KVRR/FOX9) — Department of Children, Youth, and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown and Inspector General Randall Keys faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers during a fraud hearing Tuesday.

Brown and Keys appeared before the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee to present steps the department has taken to combat fraud.

It was the same day the FBI conducted raids on nearly two dozen Medicaid-funded facilities across the Twin Cities.

Jay Swanson, a former state trooper and Department of Human Services investigator, also gave testimony.

He claims the department refused to move forward with criminal cases when he brought forth evidence of fraud numbering in the millions of dollars.

Swanson said he was pressured in 2018 by a D-H-S official to remove parts of a report he was submitting to the Office of the Legislative Auditor regarding daycare funding fraud.

“I soon had a senior DHS official in my office, angry, red-faced and almost yelling. The senior DHS official told me to delete a number of paragraphs of the document I had sent. I then advised the official that I believed what they were telling me to do was illegal,” Swanson told the committee.

The hearing came hours after the FBI and Homeland Security executed search warrants at 22 businesses across the Twin Cities, including day care facilities and autism clinics.

Minnesota BCA and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, did assist in the raids.