At Issue: Aug. 30 — The $9 billion question, ghost students, 1-on-1 with Ron Schutz

As the Minnesota State Fair kicked off this week, Minnesota politicians from both major parties seized their chance to meet face-to-face with voters.

Fraud remains one of the top issues on voters’ minds, as is a number that so far has little evidence to back it up: $9 billion. That’s how much taxpayer money former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said had been stolen from Medicaid-funded programs. Chief Political Reporter Tom Hauser dug into the fraud that has been reported and prosecuted so far and found the counter has yet to reach $500 million.

And one year after 5 INVESTIGATES exposed the issue of “ghost students” applying to Minnesota colleges to fraudulently receive financial aid, we learned they may now make up nearly a third of all applications to Minnesota’s largest community college.

Later in the program, Republican candidate for attorney general Ron Schutz sits down to d...