Federal Investigators Discover Minnesota’s Somali Daycare Fraud Dates Back a Decade

A federal fraud investigation into Minnesota daycare centers has exposed a troubling reality: The sophisticated scheme was operating in the shadows for over a decade.Republican leaders are accusing Governor Tim Walz of a catastrophic failure in leadership as a billion-dollar fraud scandal engulfs the state. The firestorm has been ignited by a viral exposé appearing to prove that certain childcare centers have been pocketing public funds.The latest find traces back to a Hennepin County fraud case in 2018 — when another Democrat, Mark Dayton was governor — in which multiple centers were accused of swindling taxpayers out of more than $1 million. Unearthed footage from a 2015 Fox 9 KMSP report exposes a grift in which low-income parents allegedly signed children up for services that existed only on paper, allowing centers to reap massive government reimbursements for kids who never attended the centers.Another video from the broadcast showed a man slipping an envelope to a parent — an alleged kickback for participating in the scheme.It was claimed at the time that at least four daycare centers participated in the scheme.“They were billing too much, they went up too high. It’s hard to imagine they were serving that many people,” Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman said at the time. “Frankly if you’re going to cheat, cheat little, because if you cheat big you’re going to get caught.”The 2015 investigation led to the arrest of four people, two of whom pleaded guilty to felony theft by swindle, according to the original Fox 9 report.The case is the latest development in the weeks since federal prosecutors charged multiple individuals in Minnesota with stealing more than $240 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. The House Oversight Committee is now probing allegations of widespread fraud in the state’s social service programs.“MN House Democrats tried everything to prevent House Republicans from establishing the Fraud Prevention and Agency Oversight Committee,” the Minnesota House speaker, Lisa Demuth, posted on X. “House Republicans prevailed and established the committee. The theft of tax dollars in MN is finally gaining national attention. Democrats will be held responsible.”The FBI director, Kash Patel, said his agency has deployed additional personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota in an effort to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”“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,” Mr. Patel said on X.An independent journalist, Nick Shirley, ignited outrage last week with a viral video of his visits to multiple Minnesota childcare centers, including one that allegedly collected millions in state funding while appearing to be largely shuttered.Vice President JD Vance, Donald Trump Jr., and Elon Musk were among the high-profile figures who reacted with criticism of Mr. Walz over the weekend.“What’s happening in Minnesota is a microcosm of the immigriation fraud in our system. Politicans like it because they get power. Welfare cheats like it because they get rich,” Vice President Vance said in a post on X that contained spelling errors. “But it’s a zero sum game, and they’re stealing both money and political power from Minnesotans.”Conspiracy theorists have also weighed in, including a conservative podcaster who revived a debunked claim linking the governor to the accused killer of a Democratic member of Congress, Melissa Hortman, who was slain along with her husband in June.“Now that we’re all aware that medical fraud is a multi-billion dollar industry in Minnesota, can we get some answers about Rep. Melissa Hortman’s murder,” Benny Johnson posted on X. “Melissa Hortman is the only Democrat to vote against healthcare for illegals. She killed the bill. Hortman and her husband were murdered soon after this vote.”The accused assassin, Vance Boelter, was named to a workplace development board by Mr. Walz in 2019, but there is no evidence the two men knew one another. A Republican state senator, Julia Coleman, rejected the notion of a connection on X, posting, “I’m begging people to stop sharing this conspiracy theory.”This article has been updated with additional context and details.

Federal Investigators Discover Minnesota’s Somali Daycare Fraud Dates Back a Decade

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