{"id":376534,"date":"2025-12-30T04:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T04:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/376534\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T04:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T04:27:09","slug":"alleged-fraud-in-minnesota-day-cares-what-we-know-about-the-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/376534\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged fraud in Minnesota day cares: What we know about the investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security say they are \u201csurging\u201d to investigate fraud in Minnesota, including at child care centers, in the latest show of federal force in the state \u2014 home to the country\u2019s largest Somali population<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n The investigation comes weeks after ICE launched operations<\/a> in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to specifically target undocumented Somali immigrants, precipitated by revelations about widespread fraud<\/a> against the state as well as President Donald Trump\u2019s comments that he \u201cdoesn\u2019t want\u201d Somalis in the country.\n <\/p>\n

\n The president has long railed against Minnesota\u2019s Somali diaspora, the vast majority of whom are US citizens. Around 84,000 people of Somali descent live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, many of whom resettled after fleeing a bloody and lasting civil war in their home country.\n <\/p>\n

\n The stepped-up effort also comes just days after a YouTube content creator, who has created anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim videos in the past, posted a viral video in which he claimed to find widespread fraud at Somali-run child care centers. The video<\/a>, which includes limited evidence for the creator\u2019s allegations, has received more than 1.5 million views on YouTube as of Monday evening and was retweeted by Vice President JD Vance and former DOGE leader Elon Musk.\n <\/p>\n

\n One law enforcement official told CNN the buildup of DHS agents in Minneapolis on Monday, including visits to some 30 businesses, was due in part to the video.\n <\/p>\n

\n Responding to a post on X <\/a>about the alleged fraud, Vice President JD Vance \u2014 increasingly at the forefront of the administration\u2019s anti-immigrant rhetoric<\/a> \u2014 said, \u201cthey\u2019re stealing both money and political power from Minnesotans.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n By Monday, DHS began posting videos<\/a> showing agents from Homeland Security Investigations entering what it called \u201csuspected fraud sites.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Here\u2019s what we know about the investigations and the viral video.\n <\/p>\n

DHS and FBI both say they are investigating fraud<\/p>\n

\n On Sunday, FBI director Kash Patel said the bureau had already \u201csurged\u201d resources to Minnesota even \u201cbefore the public conversation escalated online.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFraud that steals from taxpayers and robs vulnerable children will remain a top FBI priority in Minnesota and nationwide,\u201d he said in a post on X.<\/a> \u201cThe FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg. We will continue to follow the money and protect children, and this investigation very much remains ongoing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Officials at DHS have announced their own investigation into alleged fraud.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDHS is on the ground in Minneapolis, going DOOR TO DOOR at suspected fraud sites,\u201d said the agency on X, along with a video of people in jackets marked \u201cPolice – HSI.\u201d \u201cThe American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Neither agency said in their posts if any arrests had been made in the latest crackdown.\n <\/p>\n

\n Gov. Tim Walz, meanwhile, has pushed back on accusations state authorities overlooked fraud. The governor \u201chas worked for years to crack down on fraud and asked the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action,\u201d a spokesperson told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Authorities have targeted fraud in the state previously, including in July, when the FBI raided five businesses in the Twin Cities which had allegedly committed Medicaid housing assistance fraud, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n A federal prosecutor said on December 18 that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 Minnesota-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen, according to The Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cThe magnitude cannot be overstated,\u201d First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said. \u201cWhat we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It\u2019s staggering, industrial-scale fraud.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The wide-reaching investigations into fraud against the state build on previous investigations into fraud related to COVID-relief programs under the Biden administration.\n <\/p>\n

\n What officials called a \u201dsurge\u201d of federal resources follows a viral YouTube video by Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old self-styled independent journalist who posts content on social media with a conservative bent. In the viral video on alleged fraud in Minnesota, Shirley visits and attempts to enter several child care centers in Minnesota he suggests are not actually operational, although he claims they\u2019re receiving government funding through CCAP<\/a>, a program providing child care funds for low-income families.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shirley does not specify the days when he visited most of the centers, which he claimed were Somali-run, saying only he visited one at \u201cmidday.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN is looking into the centers identified in the video and has reached out to several of them. A spokesperson for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told CNN two of the centers featured in the video are closed. The video also sees Shirley escorted out of one building by police after reports he was trespassing and harassing people.\n <\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

\n CNN has reached out to Shirley for comment on the video.\n <\/p>\n

\n It is not unusual for child care centers to keep their doors locked or to require a key card for entry due to safety concerns, according to Clare Sanford, the vice president of government and community relations for the Minnesota Child Care Association<\/a>. And most child care centers would be especially wary of allowing someone filming to enter due to concerns about children\u2019s privacy, she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n She added although it would be unusual for a center to operate without any children at all, it\u2019s not rare for centers to operate below their official capacity. CCAP funding \u2014 the kind of funding Shirley says is being stolen \u2014 is based on the eligible children enrolled at a facility, not its total capacity.\n <\/p>\n

\n Child care centers face strict regulations in Minnesota, Sanford told CNN. Under the law, each licensed center should be visited at least once a year by an unannounced licensor, who spends hours running through a checklist of roughly 400 items, she explained. Newly opened centers face even stricter scrutiny, as part of a recent bid to combat fraud: They can expect four visits in their first operating year, three of them unannounced.\n <\/p>\n

\n The video does not address those regulations. Its explosive impact is one example of the growing power of the right-wing media ecosystem, largely fueled by independent creators whom the president has favored over traditional news networks. Shirley was invited to speak with Trump<\/a> at the White House in October, part of a roundtable discussion on Antifa<\/a> with other conservative online creators. He previously filmed a video at the Capitol attack<\/a> on January 6, 2021, a look at \u201cdeported migrant scammers in NYC,\u201d<\/a> and an interview with Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Whitney Phillips<\/a>, an associate professor of information politics and media politics at the University of Oregon, says she has \u201ca hard time imagining the FBI or any government agency under Trump surging resources to a particular area if a left-leaning independent journalist made similar kinds of accusations.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But \u201cthe government isn\u2019t being steered in any directions it doesn\u2019t want to go,\u201d she added. \u201cRight wing influencers give the government a reason to do what they were already planning on doing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Other administration officials, including the Department of Labor, Secretary of Education, and members of Congress have joined in with social media posts sharing Shirley\u2019s video.\n <\/p>\n

\n A law enforcement official told CNN the investigations announced Monday were spurred in part by the video and cover investigations into both immigration and fraud.\n <\/p>\n

Dozens arrested in previous fraud scandal<\/p>\n

\n Most of the outrage regarding allegations of fraud in the Somali community has focused on Feeding Our Future<\/a>, a nonprofit prosecutors say falsely claimed to be providing meals to needy children during the Covid-19 pandemic. Federal charges were brought against dozens of people \u2014 the vast majority of them Somali \u2014 beginning in 2022.\n <\/p>\n

\n A raft of state audits into lax oversight of Minnesota funds was dismissed by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, CNN reported last year<\/a>, with allegations the Somali community\u2019s strong support for \u2014 and contributions to \u2014 Democrats helped shield them from scrutiny.\n <\/p>\n

\n An early investigation by the Minnesota Department of Education into alleged fraud by Feeding Our Future was stymied in part by a lawsuit filed by the organization and its founder, Aimee Bock \u2014 who is not Somali \u2014 alleging the investigation was discriminatory. She later voluntarily dropped the suit a week after federal agents raided her home and the nonprofit\u2019s offices.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bock was later convicted<\/a> of seven federal charges, including bribery. She has not yet been sentenced, but a judge denied her request for a new trial.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lead prosecutor Joe Thompson said authorities have recovered only about $60 million of the $250 million stolen in the Feeding Our Future conspiracy, according to The Associated Press.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI hear they ripped off \u2014 Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBillions. Every year, billions of dollars, and they contribute nothing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

President has long-standing grudge against Somalis<\/p>\n

\n The fraud allegations \u2014 producing more than 40 convictions in the Feeding Our Future case alone \u2014 have proved a lightning rod for Trump\u2019s invectives against Somalis. But he has aggressively attacked Somali immigrants and Americans of Somali descent since his first presidential term, when he included Somalia on a travel ban alongside other Muslim-majority nations.\n <\/p>\n

\n U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar<\/a>, a naturalized citizen who came to the country as a refugee, has been a frequent target of his ire.\n <\/p>\n

\n Earlier in December, Trump said<\/a> Omar and \u201cher friends\u201d shouldn\u2019t be allowed to serve as members of Congress. He also called Somalis in Minnesota \u201cgarbage\u201d who should \u201cgo back to where they came from.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen they come from hell, and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don\u2019t want \u2018em in our country. Let \u2018em go back to where they came from and fix it,\u201d Trump said in a cabinet meeting this month. Vice President Vance loudly rapped his fist on the conference table in support.\n <\/p>\n

\n Somalis and their advocates, however, point out the group convicted of fraud does not reflect the entire community.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Somali community in the Twin Cities is overwhelmingly made up of hardworking families, small business owners, healthcare workers, students, and taxpayers who contribute every day to Minnesota\u2019s economy and civic life,\u201d Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relation\u2019s Minnesota chapter, told CNN in an email.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen an entire community is stigmatized, the impact is immediate: Families live in fear, businesses suffer, and trust in public institutions erodes.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s a few bad apples, you know, that committed crimes and broke the law, \u201d Kamali Ali, a 39-year-old who came to the US from Somalia as a child, previously told CNN<\/a> after the ICE operation targeting Somalis was announced. \u201cBut at the same time, you can\u2019t do a collective punishment.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security say they are \u201csurging\u201d to investigate fraud in Minnesota, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-376534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}