Minnesota Daycare Fraud Allegations Resurface
A 2018 video, shared once again by a television station in the Minneapolis area, appears to show scammers from the Somali community allegedly swindling millions from the state of Minnesota for services that were never actually provided.
Independent journalist Nick Shirley sparked significant discussion on social media recently after posting a photo of a daycare named “The Greater Learning Center” along with a 42-minute video. His footage of various daycare visits created quite a buzz online. In the video, surveillance footage that was previously aired shows parents dropping off their children at the center and leaving just minutes later, which raises eyebrows about the operations there.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman expressed skepticism, saying, “They were charging a lot of money… It’s hard to imagine they were serving that many people. Honestly, if you’re going to cheat, why not just cheat a little? If you go big, the chances are you’ll get caught.” This comment was made back in 2018, reflecting longstanding concerns.
On November 30, state officials accused Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, of retaliating against whistleblowers in a “coordinated” manner. In a separate announcement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson indicated that fraudulent activities within Minnesota’s Medicaid program could exceed $9 billion.
Following the viral spread of Shirley’s video, FBI Director Kash Patel noted that the bureau was allocating extra resources to investigate the situation. Additionally, Patel referenced the “Feeding Our Future” incident, in which the state government of Minnesota faced accusations of racial discrimination amid a lawsuit related to funding cuts following earlier fraud claims.
KSTP news reported that the Quality Learning Center, one of the daycares visited by Shirley, had received 95 complaints regarding violations from a Minnesota government agency between 2019 and 2023.
In a statement released on November 21, former President Donald Trump declared that “temporary protected status” for Somalis in Minnesota would be ending due to allegations of welfare fraud, asserting that the influx of refugees had detrimental effects on the country.
