Your tax dollars are buying lobster and filet mignon for millionaires – and it's completely legal.
One retired engineer figured out exactly how the scam works – and decided to prove it.
What Democrats said when he showed up to testify will make your blood boil.
The SNAP Loophole Letting Millionaires Pocket Food Stamps While Taxpayers Foot the Bill
The loophole has a bureaucratic name: Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility.
Federal law sets income and asset limits for SNAP – meaning if you have too much money saved, you don't qualify for food stamps.
States found a way around it.
Under BBCE, if a state gives someone any welfare "benefit" – and they defined "benefit" to include a pamphlet, a flyer, or a phone hotline number – that person automatically qualifies for food stamps regardless of actual wealth.
Forty-four states are running this play right now.
The Foundation for Government Accountability calls it "fraud by design" – and the numbers back them up.
Roughly one in five SNAP recipients hold assets of $100,000 or more.
The FGA estimates over five million people are enrolled in SNAP through BBCE who don't meet traditional income or asset requirements – and every single month, your tax dollars are paying for their groceries.
Food stamp enrollment exploded from 17.1 million recipients in 2000 to 41.1 million in 2022 – and the annual price tag went from $17 billion to $119 billion.
Barack Obama supercharged the BBCE loophole during his tenure, and Democrats in states like Minnesota turned it into something they intend to keep forever.
Minnesota Democrats Called It Despicable When He Exposed Their Fraud by Design
Rob Undersander is a millionaire retired engineer from Minnesota who suspected something was wrong with the food stamp system.
So in 2016, he did what any good engineer would do – he ran the experiment himself.
He filled out the same SNAP applications he'd been helping seniors complete while volunteering at the Central Minnesota Council on Aging.
A few weeks later, the government was depositing $278 a month in food stamp benefits into his account.
No income verification.
No asset check.
After a year, his monthly benefits climbed to $341.
He collected for 19 months – charging lobster and filet mignon to his EBT card – until his pension income finally pushed him out of eligibility.
He and his wife donated every dollar's equivalent to their church food pantry.
Then he went to the Minnesota legislature to testify about what he'd found.
That's when Democrat Rep. John Considine of Mankato looked Undersander in the eye during a 2018 hearing and said: "You knew this was wrong and you did it anyway. I find it pretty despicable. I am just sorry there is no way we can prosecute you."
Considine had nothing to say about the billions flowing out the door to people who don't qualify.
He saved his outrage for the engineer who proved it was happening.
Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Just Made States Pay for Their Own SNAP Fraud
Here's what connects the dots in 2026.
Tim Walz – the same Minnesota governor who got dragged in front of the House Oversight Committee – oversaw a welfare system where federal prosecutors estimate $9 billion in taxpayer money was stolen across multiple social service programs.
James Comer's committee released testimony in March 2026 revealing that Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison knew about credible fraud concerns years earlier and didn't act – then retaliated against the whistleblowers who tried to sound the alarm.
Walz called the $9 billion figure "sensationalized."
FBI Director Kash Patel called it "just the tip of a very large iceberg."
A state that hands out welfare benefits with no accountability at the front door is the same state that loses billions out the back – and Minnesota proved it.
That's not a coincidence – it's a culture.
Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill changed the equation: states that can't bring their payment error rates down now have to cover those costs themselves, starting in 2028.
Undersander has spent a decade testifying in front of legislators trying to close the BBCE loophole – including just last month in Minnesota.
Democrats called him despicable.
Meanwhile, the state he was trying to fix became the biggest welfare fraud scandal in modern American history.
Sources:
- M.D. Kittle, "The 'Minnesota Millionaire' Exposed A 'Fully Weaponized' Welfare Loophole," The Federalist, April 17, 2026.
- "Hearing Wrap Up: Minnesota Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison Ignored Rampant Taxpayer Fraud and Silenced State Whistleblowers," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, March 4, 2026.
- Rep. French Hill, "Rep. Hill Awards Governor Tim Walz the Golden Fleece for Failing to Prevent Billions in Taxpayer Fraud," U.S. House of Representatives, February 26, 2026.
- "Time To End The Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility Loophole In SNAP," America First Policy Institute, December 16, 2025.
- "Minnesota Millionaire Who Qualified for Food Stamps Warns of 'Fraud by Design' Loophole Ahead of Hearing," Fox News Digital, March 2026.