Millions in cash leaving Minneapolis airport draw lawmakers’ scrutiny

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(The Center Square) – Minnesota lawmakers are raising concerns about reports that hundreds of millions of dollars are leaving Minnesota airports destined for foreign countries.

State Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, is chair of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee in the Minnesota legislature. During testimony this week, she addressed the issue, focusing especially on Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Robbins said this issue has been ongoing for decades with no real action taken by either the state or federal government to address it.

“The story of child care fraud back from the 2015 . . . period is when we first learned about suitcases of cash leaving the airport,” Robbins said.

Following a report in 2019 from the state’s legislative auditor that said those claims could not be substantiated, Robbins said many people, including herself, believed that issue had stopped.

“I was shocked in January, 2026 to see a TSA bulletin saying it had tripled,” she said. “In 2024, $343 million left MSP in cash. In 2025, that number grew to $350 million . . . That was a shocking number, and that really galvanized the public on this issue.”

Robbins said Minnesota is “an outlier” as a state in terms of the amount of cash leaving its airports. She stated that, despite the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport being the 16th-largest airport, it has the most cash flowing out of it of any airport in the nation.

“That number, $350 million, leaving our airport in cash, is higher than the cash leaving any other airport in the country,” Robbins said, “Including much larger airports: JFK, LAX, Chicago O’Hare.”

She expressed concern this money flow is directly related to fraud cases in the state, especially within Minnesota’s Somali community.

“This is not a new issue,” she said. “This has been going on in our state for decades.”

Democrats on the committee, including Rep. Steve Elkins, expressed disbelief about the scale of the cash flowing out of the airport.

“It is completely implausible to me that hundreds of millions of dollars could have made it through that process undetected. That is impossible,” Elkins said. “That could not have happened without the TSA’s knowledge.”

Robbins said the transfers are technically legal if the sender files a form for amounts more than $10,000.

“It is absolutely legal, and that’s what we are trying to make sure the public understands,” she responded to Elkins.

A retired TSA agent, speaking anonymously during the hearing, said the official estimates are likely low.

“I really think the money that goes through the airport is on the low end, because we’ve never actually counted the money,” she explained. “They just fill out that form and get through the airport.”

She responded directly to Democrat claims that it was not possible.

“To the gentleman that's questioning this, I feel like you're questioning my integrity,” the agent said. “I saw it firsthand. There was millions and millions that added to billions and billions of dollars that went through that airport while I worked there.”

Robbins called for both state and federal law to be tightened.

“It’s incumbent on us to understand the issue, to learn from our federal partners what their jurisdiction is, what’s the jurisdiction of the state, and to think together how we can do better to address this issue,” she said.

This all comes amid increased scrutiny of Minnesota’s taxpayer-funded programs, particularly as Vice President J.D. Vance recently announced he will be leading a federal, nationwide “War on Fraud.”

This hearing is one of many as state Republicans push for stricter oversight and greater accountability to address alleged widespread fraud across the state’s programs. Robbins previously labeled the fraud as a “web.”

“I just feel like we are still missing the mark to dismantle these webs of fraud,” she said earlier this month.

Independent investigators and federal officials estimate the potential loss to fraud schemes in Minnesota could range from $9 billion to $20 billion.