by Caden Olson
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office said on Sunday it launched new investigations in response to a viral video further documenting evidence of fraud in the state.
A new documentary produced by independent journalist Nick Shirley highlights visits to more than 20 licensed childcare and healthcare providers participating in state-funded assistance programs that appeared to be non-operational during the visits. Walz’s office responded to the video in a statement provided to FOX News, claiming his administration has “strengthened oversight,” in response to the documented fraud schemes.
“The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action,” Walz’s office told Fox News on Sunday night. “He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.”
Walz’s office added that the administration had “hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.”
In one viral moment, Shirley goes to a building displaying a misspelled sign reading “Quality Learing [sic] Center.”
“Quality Learning Center is a daycare, yet they spelled ‘Learning’ wrong and they said ‘Learing.’ This daycare alone in 1025 has received $1.9 million from the government,” Shirley says of the facility. “The strange thing about these childcare centers is there’s no one here right now. It’s midday on a weekday. If you were to try to go inside, it’s completely closed and the windows are all blacked out. No one’s working midday. Children should be in here, and this place is licensed for 99 children.”
“My office, here in Minneapolis, I’m sort of in the heart of all of this fraud. And I would see these childcare centers. I said, well, are there any kids there? It’s middle of the day, and all I see are a couple of guys standing out front smoking,” Shirley’s collaborator says in the documentary. “And then I go by another daycare, and I’d see the same thing. I said, Well, where do these kids play? And so I started to go online and look. I said, this place is licensed for 80 children. They had zero children every time I went by there. They never had a single child there.”
Walz’s administration recently found itself plagued by allegations of fraud involving the Somali population in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the largest concentration of Somali-Americans in the country. Federal prosecutors said earlier in December that over the past seven years fraudsters in Minnesota may have stolen some $9 billion in federal funds supporting programs in the state.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel responded to Shirley’s viral documentary, noting the Bureau was “aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota,” and that the institution had “surged personnel and investigative resources” in response to fraud in the state.
“To date, the FBI dismantled a $250 million fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during COVID. The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies, and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feeding Our Future network,” Patel said on X Sunday. “The 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.”
On top of the FBI looking into alleged fraud in the Somali community in Minnesota, the Treasury Department is also investigating this matter.
Earlier in December, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said his department would use a geographic targeting order to focus on specific money service businesses. The Bank Secrecy Act allows the Treasury Secretary to issue specific reporting requirements for financial companies in certain geographic regions to combat potential money laundering.
“Egregious fraud in Minnesota has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, including funds sent to Somalia through money services businesses,” Bessent said.
“Under President Trump, we will not stop until we fully investigate, analyze, and permanently end this massive fraud ring,” he added.
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Caden Olson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Photo “Governor Tim Walz” by Governor Tim Walz.
I should add that most of the people listed in my earlier comment have deep ties to the Democrat Party, Will Hailer in particular.
On a related note, since Ilhan Omar represents MN and her husband is employed by Rose Lake Capital, which failed to completely remove its internet footprint, here are the names of people with close ties to Rose Lake Capital:
Will Hailer – Co-founder, CEO, partner
Tim Mynett – Co-founder, partner
Alex Hoffman – Co-founder, partner
Justin Pratt – Partner
Sheila Healy – Partner
Keith Mestrich – Advisory Chairman, Former CEO of Amalgamated Bank
Bill Quesada Derrough – Advisor, Managing Director Moelis & Company
Amb. (ret.) J. Adam Ereli – Advisor, Former United States Ambassador to Bahrain
Amb. (ret.) Max Baucus – Advisor, Former United States Ambassador, U.S. Senator and Chairman of Senate Finance Committee
Amb. (ret.) J. Peter Pham – Advisor, Former United States Ambassador to the Great Lakes and the Sahel Region of Africa (which though not contiguous with Somalia is relatively close to it)
Go get ’em!