WASHINGTON (TNND) — A viral video is bringing the national spotlight to taxpayer-funded daycare centers in Minnesota, with allegations many were collecting tax dollars but not actually operating.
Nick Shirley, who posted the video over the weekend, recorded himself and another man visiting several daycare centers, knocking on the door and finding they had no children attending them.
But Ibrahim Ali, the manager at one of the centers cited, Quality Learning Center, called the video dishonest.
“We’re open Monday through Thursday, 2 to 10 pm. He was here earlier. I don’t see him right now,” he claimed. “We’re open. We’ve been open for 8 1/2 years now. We haven’t closed once during that period,” he said in a video posted by Fox News.
At a news conference Monday, Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown acknowledged some daycare centers had been recently been shut down.
But she also said within the last six months, regulators had conducted multiple unannounced visits and did not find any fraud.
Still – the video has provoked outrage with more than a hundred million views, with critics saying they’ve been sounding alarm bells for months.
The Department of Homeland Security this week sent agents to investigate other alleged fraudulent businesses.
DHS posted videos online of agents going inside to speak with employees.
This action followed a December 18 announcement by the Justice Department, about multiple charges in a Minnesota fraud scheme linked to a publicly funded program designed to help those with Autism, explaining how the scheme was carried out.
“As a recruitment tactic to drive up enrollment, Star Autism paid monthly cash kickback payments to parents who enrolled their children to receive EIDBI services through Star Autism. The amount of these payments was contingent on the services DHS authorized a child to receive—the higher the authorization amount, the higher the kickback.”
One woman Asha Farhan Hassan, was charged with wire fraud for her role in a $14 million Autism fraud scheme and was also Hassan was also charged with participating in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, for which she received $465,000.
That case of fraud has already seen more than 78 people charged with $250 million in fraud found.
it was described in September 2022 by the Biden justice Department as “the largest pandemic fraud scheme in the United States.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi also weighed in, posting on X that of the 98 individuals charged in recent months 85 are of Somali descent.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R, Minnesota said he’s “calling for the denaturalization and deportation of every Somali engaged in fraud in Minnesota,”
He also said on Fox News Monday that he thinks Governor Tim Walz, D, Minnesota, should resign.
“Tim Walz and our former colleague, who’s now Attorney General, Keith Ellison, have looked the other way for seven years and have allowed billions of dollars of Minnesota taxpayer money to be bilked out of Minnesota,” he said.
While the Governor has not spoken publicly since the video was posted, Walz has for months has insisted he’s been cracking down on the fraud.
A spokesperson this week told Fox News in a statement, “He has strengthened oversight, including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.”
On Monday, Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration (SBA) posted:
“SBA is pausing annual funding to Minnesota while we investigate $430 million in suspected PPP fraud across the state.
This Admin will not continue to hand out blank checks to fraudsters – and we will not rest until we clean up the criminal networks that have been stealing from American taxpayers.”
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