The FBI went into overdrive to investigate suspected fraud at nearly a dozen Minnesota social services after a YouTube video purporting to show day care facilities that aren\u2019t operational but receiving state and federal funding went viral over the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that he was aware of the video, created by right-wing influencer Nick Shirley, but insisted the FBI had already \u201csurged\u201d investigative resources and personnel to Minnesota as part of its ongoing fraud investigation that has largely targeted Somali immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg,\u201d Patel posted Sunday on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz\u2019s office defended its ongoing efforts to crack down on fraud when it was asked about the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action,\u201d a spokesperson for the governor\u2019s office said in an email. \u201cHe has strengthened oversight \u2014 including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Justice Department has been running a sprawling fraud investigation involving some members of Minnesota\u2019s Somali community for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, during the Biden administration, federal prosecutors announced initial indictments in what they called a $250 million scheme to defraud a federally funded child nutrition program. As of last month, prosecutors had charged 77 people. They described Aimee Bock, who is white, as the mastermind of the operation. A jury convicted her in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shirley, 23, who describes himself as an independent journalist, put the subject of Minnesota fraud in the spotlight of conservative media in recent days. His report out of Minneapolis was quickly championed by Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and various right-wing outlets. His video has been viewed millions of times on X and YouTube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHere is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet,\u201d Shirley said online. \u201cWe uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among other things, the video features Shirley in front of what appears to be an inactive child care center in Minneapolis with a sign that reads \u201cQuality Learing Center,\u201d including an apparent misspelling of \u201clearning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shirley contends it received $1.9 million \u201cfrom the government\u201d this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is open and blatant fraud taking place here,\u201d Shirley insists, calling it \u201cjust one of the hundreds of child daycare centers here inside of Minneapolis being ran by the Somali population.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shirley, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is no stranger to right-wing media. He did a live interview with a protester at the Jan. 6, 2021, riot \u2014 who was later sentenced to prison before being pardoned by President Donald Trump \u2014 that he posted on YouTube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His YouTube channel says it has 1.2 million followers, and he regularly posts political content, including person-on-the-street interviews from numerous locations. In October, he was a guest at a White House conference on antifa, a decentralized set of extreme left-wing groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no answer when an NBC News reporter called the child care center Monday. A Child Learning Center at that address in Minneapolis is licensed with the state to care for 99 children. The state has fined the facility twice since 2022 for allegedly not performing a required background check, and several violations were listed from its most recent licensing visit in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state Department of Children, Youth, and Families did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Shirley\u2019s claim that this facility received $1.9 million in government funding in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But DCYF commissioner Tikki Brown said at a Monday news conference that Quality Learning Center was closed last week and another center that Shirley visited had been shut down earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brown, according to The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, also said the other centers Shirley checked out had been inspected in the last six months and no evidence of fraud was discovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walz\u2019s office said in response to an email from NBC News also confirmed that Quality Learning Center had been shuttered and that the state Department of Human Services has \u201calready referred these providers to law enforcement, and law enforcement has already conducted raids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shirley, accompanied by a researcher he identifies only as Dave, peppered apparent Somali immigrants at the sites they visited with questions and talked to people who said they lived in the area and insisted they have never seen any children at any of the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump administration seized on the fraud scandal this month as it embarked on a crackdown on illegal immigration in Minnesota, which is home to about 80,000 people of Somali descent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump delivered several derogatory rants against Somali immigrants following news reports that dozens of people of Somali descent had been convicted in fraud schemes related to Covid relief that netted over $1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want them in our country,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you, OK. Somebody will say, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s not politically correct.\u2019 I don\u2019t care. I don\u2019t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walz blasted Trump for \u201cdemonizing\u201d Somali immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you commit crimes, you go to jail,\u201d Walz said at an event this month. \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter what your race is, what your ethnicity, religion \u2014 but demonizing an entire group of people by their race and their ethnicity, a very group of people who contribute to the vitality \u2014 economic, cultural \u2014 of this state, is something I was hoping we\u2019d never have to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the Trump administration have also called for the resignation of Walz, a Democrat who was former Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 running mate in last year\u2019s presidential election, for allegedly failing to stem the corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walz was the governor in 2022 when the Justice Department first began charging people in Minnesota with exploiting a federally funded nutrition program for children during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis was a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,\u201d Andrew M. Luger, then the U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, said when the first federal charges were announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n