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Committee hears bills expanding BCA subpoena power and making fake DNR licenses a crime as AI-driven fraud rises
Summary
Senators heard two bills that would give the BCA expanded subpoena authority and make creating or displaying fraudulent DNR licenses and registrations a crime, citing AI-fueled forgery and gaps identified by county attorneys and judges; both measures were laid over or advanced for further work.
Minnesota lawmakers in the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on proposals intended to give investigators new tools against emerging, AI-enabled fraud.
Senate File 4284 would give the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) additional subpoena authority for the Minnesota Financial Crimes and Fraud Section, expand the statutory definition of identity theft to include AI or technology-based duplication of a person's voice or likeness, and extend the statute of limitations for some fraud-related crimes. "This extension is important due to the complex nature of these crimes and helps ensure fraudsters are held accountable," Superintendent Drew Evans told the committee, adding the changes will ‘‘assist us in combating fraud across Minnesota."
Senate File 4206 focuses on fraud involving Department of Natural Resources documents. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Grecki, assistant director of enforcement for the DNR, said investigators are seeing incidents in which people use AI tools to produce nearly identical hunting, fishing or state-park permits and then try to pass those documents off as real. He told the committee county attorneys sometimes decline charges because the conduct was not specifically criminalized under DNR-related statutes. "Because of the recommendations from county attorneys and judges, that's why we're coming back," Grecki said.
Committee members asked whether existing forgery statutes (for example, Minn. Stat. 609.625) might already apply; Grecki and others said prosecutors had been reluctant to bring DNR-related charges without a clear, DNR-specific statutory basis. Senators also questioned mens rea language in the bills and whether penalties target dealers and commercial actors who knowingly misuse temporary dealer registrations, or the companies that produce AI-generated content.
The committee laid SF 4284 over for further consideration and paperwork; sponsors said they would refine mens rea provisions and discuss whether civil penalties or enforcement paths should be added for commercial creators of fraudulent images.
