FBI Director Kash Patel revealed the bureau is cracking down on fraud in Minneapolis after a daycare was accused of stealing $4 million in taxpayer money.
In a lengthy X post on Sunday, Patel said the FBI has long been aware of the situation, vowed to ‘protect the children,’ and warned this is just ‘the tip of a very large iceberg.’
A Minnesota daycare with misspelled signs and no children inside reportedly received millions in taxpayer funds, sparking immediate outrage among lawmakers demanding answers.
Allegations spread on social media this week after independent journalist Nick Shirley posted a video on X claiming state authorities allowed the ‘largest fraud in US history’ to go unchecked.
Lisa Demuth, running for governor, is now pushing for stricter scrutiny to uncover fraud in the Democrat-led state.
On Sunday, Patel announced that the FBI had already ‘surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota,’ even before the social media discussion took off running.
‘The FBI is aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota,’ Patel wrote, claiming that the bureau has moving to ‘dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.’
‘Fraud that steals from taxpayers and robs vulnerable children will remain a top FBI priority in Minnesota and nationwide,’ he added.
A supposedly empty Minnesota daycare has reportedly received $4 million in taxpayer funds, according to a video posted to X by independent journalist Nick Shirley that received over 65 million views in under two days
FBI Director Kash Patel updated X, saying the FBI had already ‘surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota,’ even before the social media discussion took off running
Shirley, who visited the Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis, shared a video of the trip that racked up over 65 million views in under two days.
The sign above the front door misspells the name as ‘Quality Learing Center,’ and the video shows an almost empty parking lot and a dark lobby.
In his announcement, Patel emphasized that the FBI has been aggressively targeting a massive fraud network that stole COVID-era food aid meant for children in Minneapolis.
The FBI has toppled a $250 million fraud network that targeted vulnerable children and exposed a ‘large-scale money laundering’ operation, Patel said.
‘The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feeding Our Future network,’ he wrote. ‘The case led to 78 indictments and 57 convictions.’
Prosecutors alleged that most of the meals intended for low-income children during the pandemic never existed, and instead, the taxpayer money went to luxury homes, cars, jewelry and real estate abroad.
Some defendants – including Abdiwahab Ahmed Mohamud, Ahmed Ali, Hussein Farah, Abdullahe Nur Jesow, Asha Farhan Hassan, Ousman Camara and Abdirashid Bixi Dool – faced charges ranging from wire fraud to conspiracy.
‘These criminals didn’t just engage in historic fraud, but tried to subvert justice as well,’ Patel wrote.
He said Abdimajid Mohamed Nur and others tried to bribe a juror with $120,000, pleaded guilty, and were then sentenced to 10 years in prison and nearly $48 million in restitution in related cases.
‘The FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg,’ Patel said. ‘We will continue to follow the money and protect children, and this investigation very much remains ongoing.’
‘Furthermore, many are also being referred to immigrations officials for possible further denaturalization and deportation proceedings where eligible,’ he added.
Additionally, a campaign staffer for Ilhan Omar, a congresswoman of Somali origin who has represented Minnesota’s 5th district since 2019, claimed he served 5,000 meals a day under fake food site Advance Athletic Development.
He instead pocketed millions and pleaded guilty to fraud in August of this year.
On Omar’s 2018 and 2020 campaigns, he acted as an ‘enforcer,’ managing a high-intensity voter mobilization effort in Minneapolis’ Somali community.
Patel’s announcement followed outcry from powerful figures over rampant Minnesota fraud that had slipped past federal agents without repercussions.
‘Fraud is easy to find – if you’re willing to look for it,’ Demuth said following the allegations of fraud within the daycare.
‘Many of these seemingly vacant businesses have been cited by the Walz admin for licensing violations which should have made it easy to catch and stop millions from being stolen,’ she added.
Congressman Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, went further, stating that ‘folks need to be arrested and prosecuted’ and that ‘the Governor of Minnesota needs to be held accountable.’
Elon Musk also waded into the controversy, saying that once more Americans find out about the alleged fraud, they ‘will be horrified at what your tax money is doing.’
Vice President JD Vance addressed the apparent scandal in Minnesota, though didn’t name the daycare center specifically.
‘What’s happening in Minnesota is a microcosm of the immigration fraud in our system. Politicians like it because they get power. Welfare cheats like it because they get rich,’ Vance wrote in a social media post on Saturday.
‘But it’s a zero sum game, and they’re stealing both money and political power from Minnesotans,’ he added.
This comes after it was alleged that Minnesota’s government lost at least $1 billion in public funds intended for feeding children, helping the homeless and providing autism therapy.
Federal prosecutors said so-called providers submitted false invoices for services never delivered.
Over the past five years, people mostly from Somali communities grew rich running companies that charged the state millions for social services that never happened, according to The New York Times.
Given the scale of the situation, President Donald Trump weighed in and criticized Governor Tim Walz for allowing Minnesota to become ‘a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.’
He said the perpetrators should be ‘sent back to where they came from.’ Later, he said he would be revoking the temporary protected status of the roughly 700 Somali nationals who have it, which prevents them from being deported.
On Thanksgiving, Trump Walz ‘seriously retarded’ and also attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar and Minnesota’s immigration policy.
Earlier this month, Omar spoke out against the massive welfare fraud, warning it has a significant impact on the Somali community.
‘You know, this also has an impact on Somalis because we are also taxpayers in Minnesota,’ she said during a segment on Face the Nation, as reported by The Hill.
‘We could have also benefited from the program and the money that was stolen,’ she added, stressing that the scandal has given Somalis ‘a bad name.’
When asked if the stolen money had funded terrorism, the congresswoman said she was ‘pretty confident’ it didn’t – but any such link would reflect a major failure by investigators.
Omar said: ‘There are people who have been prosecuted, and who have been sentenced.’
‘If there was a linkage in that the money they have stolen going to terrorism, that is a failure of the FBI and our court system in not figuring that out,’ she added.
