500 Illegal Immigrants Arrested In Minnesota, 1,000 Immigration-Fraud Cases Investigated: DHS Official

As additional investigators surge to fraud-plagued Minnesota, federal agents have already arrested 500 illegal immigrants and probed 1,000 immigration-fraud cases during the past two months, a Homeland Security official estimated.

Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary, gave those updated figures Dec. 30 during an interview with the Charlie Kirk Show.

Fraud was substantiated in about half of the immigration-fraud investigations, she said, and many of the arrested illegal immigrants were from Somalia.

Somalis dominate the list of nearly 100 people federally charged in various schemes to defraud the government, authorities have said.

McLaughlin gave additional details in a Dec. 30 Fox News interview. She said “hundreds” of investigators were on the ground in Minnesota.

They were knocking on doors of day care centers, health care centers, and “other organizations that take taxpayer dollars,” she said.

“These suspected perpetrators are really trying to cover their tracks,” McLaughlin said. She accused the suspects of “trying to whitewash” their operations to appear to be “legitimate” businesses, but they are shams, McLaughlin said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ramped up its operations in Minnesota in recent months, well before a media firestorm erupted over widespread Somali childcare fraud.

YouTuber Nick Shirley gained nearly 132 million views after he posted a Dec. 26 video saying he uncovered over $110 million in alleged fraud in a single day.

The video shows Shirley visiting day care centers that appeared to have no children present, yet these sites had received large payments from a federal childcare program run through the state of Minnesota.

Federal officials have since cut off funding to that program in Minnesota, and are demanding more solid documentation from day care providers nationwide.

ICE has frequently encountered resistance and protesters in Minnesota, which is considered a “sanctuary” state that shields illegal immigrants.

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Trump SBA SUSPENDS Nearly 7,000 Minnesota Borrowers Amid Suspected PPP and EIDL Fraud

The Trump administration’s Small Business Administration announced Thursday that it has suspended 6,900 Minnesota borrowers after uncovering a widespread suspected fraud tied to COVID-19 relief programs.

According to the agency, an internal review of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) approvals in Minnesota revealed nearly $400 million in potentially fraudulent loans—money that was supposed to keep small businesses afloat and American workers employed during the pandemic.

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the agency reviewed thousands of pandemic-era loans approved in Minnesota and identified 7,900 PPP and EIDL loans connected to the suspended borrowers.

In a blunt statement posted to X, Loeffler laid out the scope of the action:

“Over the last week, SBA has reviewed thousands of potentially fraudulent pandemic-era PPP and EIDL loans approved in Minnesota.

Today, our agency took action to suspend 6,900 Minnesota borrowers amid suspected fraudulent activity. In total, these borrowers were approved for 7,900 PPP and EIDL loans worth approximately $400M.

These individuals will be banned from all SBA loan programs, including disaster loans, going forward. We will also refer every case, where appropriate, to federal law enforcement for prosecution and repayment.

After years, the American people will finally begin to see the criminals who stole from law-abiding taxpayers held accountable – and this is just the first state.”

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Washington State AG Warns Citizen Journalists to Stop Investigating Somali Daycares or Face Potential Hate Crime Charges

The Washington state attorney general released a statement on X Tuesday evening warning independent journalists to stop investigating fraudulent Somali daycare centers or they could be charged with a hate crime.

“My office has received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking,” State AG Nick Brown stated. “We are in touch with the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families regarding the claims being pushed online and the harassment reported by daycare providers. Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation. Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior.”

Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil rights, issued a warning of her own in reaction to the Washington state AG’s post.

“ANY state official who chills or threatens to chill a journalist’s 1A rights will have some ‘splainin to do,” she wrote on X, Wednesday morning. “[The DOJ Civil Rights Division] takes potential violations of 18 USC § 242 seriously!” Dhillon added.

This statute, known as the Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, makes it a crime for any person acting under the pretense of law to willfully deprive another individual of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

The clash of the AGs came after Youtuber Nick Shirley exposed about a dozen Somali-owned, state-funded childcare facilities in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that appeared to be completely deserted.

Shirley produced a 42-minute video, which has been viewed over 131 million times on X since it was posted on December 26,  alleging that Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.) “knew about the fraud but never reported it.”

Inspired by Shirley’s bombshell report, citizen journalists in multiple states with large Somali populations have launched their own investigations in recent days.

In the Kent, Washington area Tuesday, YouTuber Chris Sims, a self-described “gonzo journalist,” visited seven suspicious Somali childcare sites and reported that they were “very unhappy” to see him.

Sims posted a video of him approaching a private home listed as a childcare facility that appeared to be not as advertised.

“There was no sign of kids or being a Daycare facility,” Sims wrote. “I was told by a few they weren’t Daycares despite receiving tax payer dollars. One yelled ‘Call the police’ behind the door.”

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Fraud claims, wine money, Sharia: Ethical storms around Ilhan Omar’s husband

A fresh wave of legal challenges facing Tim Mynett, the husband of US Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN), has brought renewed scrutiny to the couple. This attention focuses not only on business ethics but also on the apparent contradictions between Mynett’s commercial interests and the religious identity central to Omar’s public persona.

Mynett, a political consultant turned venture capitalist, is currently the subject of a lawsuit alleging fraud and breach of contract in connection with “eStCru,” a California-based wine business in which he is a partner.

The lawsuit, filed in Washington, DC, claims that Mynett and his business partner, Will Hailer, defrauded investor Naeem Mohd. According to court documents, Mohd alleges he was persuaded to invest $300,000 based on a guarantee of a 200% return within 18 months, but the plaintiff’s promises were never fulfilled.

Although the principal investment was reportedly repaid after a delay, the lawsuit alleges that the promised profits were never paid. It accuses the partners of misrepresenting the company’s financial health. Mynett has denied the allegations, characterizing the matter as a contract dispute.

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The Legacy Media’s Long Knives Are Out for Nick Shirley

You knew this would happen. An independent journalist scoops the legacy media, and they go after him. It’s happened before, and it will happen again. Nick Shirley has made CNNCBSABCNBCNYT and all of the other leftist media look bad, and now they will try to make sure he pays.

Our own Eric Florack captured the essence of what Shirley accomplished just a few days ago: 

This is most likely the single biggest story ever covered by an independent journalist. In one video alone, Nick Shirley has exposed over $100 million in fraud. I suspect he’s merely scratched the surface on the story.
 
Keep in mind, this is right in the backyard of the big paper in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Star Tribune, a paper with far more in the way of resources to lean on than Mr. Shirley could ever hope to field. They can’t be bothered. Or perhaps they’re shielding us from something. As you can imagine (and I suspect some viewers can see) the video has had over 100 million views so far. You can imagine why. Nobody, including the Tribune, is covering the story well enough.

Eric is right. The legacy media couldn’t be bothered, that is, until Shirley’s discoveries spurred on more investigations in Minnesota and elsewhere, and a pattern has emerged. There is a ton of corruption in the Somali-American communities, and we’re paying for it, as PJ Media’s Victoria Taft revealed

In the state of Washington, one internet sleuth began going through the grants and found 539 Somali daycare centers. Some of these centers are in people’s homes. Many of these taxpayer-subsidized centers do not list an address.

So, how does the legacy media respond to all of this? Does it wake up and start covering the alleged fraud and corruption, or does it go after the journalistic whistleblower?   

Actually, those were just rhetorical questions. I know you know what they did. 

Here’s CNN confronting not the alleged scammers, but Shirley himself. 

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ICE Director Says Sanctuary Cities Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Crisis

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Toddy Lyons asserted that Minnesota’s so-called sanctuary state laws are in part to blame for the rampant fraud being exposed in the state. He argued that those laws, ensure that fraudsters, as well as illegal immigrants, have safe havens to abuse the American taxpayers.

“There’s always a tie when it comes to sanctuary jurisdictions, where you can hide in plain sight. You see a lot of these fraudsters use a lot of sanctuary rules and sanctuary protections to enact in criminal fraud just like this,” Lyons said.

We’ve been on the ground for so long looking into these states that are conducting these type of material fraud, and when Homeland Security Investigations goes into these businesses, there is criminal activity when it comes to labor trafficking, child trafficking, human exploitation and that’s what we’re looking at up there in Minnesota. And you’ll always come back to these sanctuary jurisdictions where you’ll find them hiding in plain sight and using those sanctuary protections to employ not only illegal aliens, but to conduct criminal fraud just like you’re seeing right now.

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Mortifying moment anti-Trump Minnesota mom suddenly cuts speech short after admitting ‘fraud is bad’

A Minnesota mother who spoke out Wednesday against the Trump administration’s freezing of child care funding abruptly cut her remarks short after admitting that “fraud is bad.”

Deko Nor, a medical student whose four-year-old attends a daycare center outside Minneapolis, told reporters at a New Year’s Eve press conference that her child would be one of more than 20,000 losing access to the facilities without federal help.

“I rely on child care. I work. If child care is cut, I am unable to work or go to school,” she said, before beginning her next sentence by declaring: “I understand fraud is bad—”

Nor immediately looked down at the text of her speech, shook her head in disbelief and placed her right hand to her mouth while inhaling sharply.

She then looked up, apparently flustered, and told the other attendees at the news conference: “I don’t think I can speak.”

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‘Fraudian’ Slip?? Two Women React Strangely When They Mention “Fraud” at Minnesota Rally – One Goes “Off Script” and Gets Brutally Honest

The Somali fraud stories are emerging across the country.  From its origin in Minnesota, new claims have emerged in Ohio, Maine, Massachusetts, and Washington.

Yesterday, in Minnesota, state legislators and daycare providers held a press conference to speak out after the Trump administration announced that Health and Human Services (HHS) would be suspending the program until an investigation into the fraud claims was completed.

The press conference began with an opening statement from a childcare center director named Amanda Schillinger, who claims that many in her community are afraid to come forward because they’re being targeted and that she really doesn’t want to be there.

“So lets be honest about how we got here.  “Our President decided he doesn’t like the Somali community and he wants to destroy them,” she said.  “Speaker Demuth and the GOP caucus sent a YouTuber out to create the narrative they want out there.  Not the truth.”

She continued by saying that “Minnesota does investigate suspected fraud in childcare and hold people accountable.  And they will continue to do so because fraud is never acceptable.  But cutting off childcare funding to everyone in the state is not the answer and its not acceptable.”

She claims that 75 percent of the children in “our program” qualify through the state for childcare funding.

Next to speak was a woman that said she is a mother, medical student, and benefactor of childcare funding spoke at the event.  She began her speech, seemingly reading from her phone, by acknowledging that she’s “not much of a good speaker” but would try her best.

Nervously reading from her cell phone, she stated that 20,000 kids will be unable to attend daycare as they and their parents depend on this funding.

But when the script prompted her to say, “I understand: fraud is bad,” she covered her mouth in shock, seemingly concerned for what she had just said, and backed out of her speech.

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Minnesota: Police Dispute Somali-Run Day Care Claiming ‘Important Documents’ Were Stolen

Police in Minneapolis have disputed a Somali-run daycare center’s claim that “important documents” disproving fraudulent activity were stolen.

The Nokomis DayCare Center claimed that a burglar broke into the building through the kitchen in the rear of the facility on Tuesday, rummaging through the main office and stealing documents pertaining to its operations, but police say that no report was filed, per the New York Post:

Nasrulah Mohamed, manager of Nakomis Day Care Center, told reporters that a suspect entered through the kitchen at the rear of the facility, damaging a wall and breaking into the building’s office, sometime on Tuesday. He said the alleged prowler stole “important documentation” including children’s enrollment information, employee documentation and checkbooks.

However “no loss was reported to officers,” according to a preliminary report by the Minneapolis Police Department. MPD noted that the center later reached out with additional information, but the updated police report was not immediately available.

The Nokomis DayCare Center provided video of a hole in the wall in what may have been a utility closet.

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NewsNation Reporter Finds “Assisted Living” Facility Funded by Americans Is Just a Single-Family Home — Owner Indicted in Feeding Our Future Still Raking in $49M from Minnesota

Minnesota’s sprawling welfare-industrial complex is once again under the microscope after a stunning investigation by NewsNation revealed that so-called “assisted living” facilities funded with millions in taxpayer dollars are, in reality, nothing more than ordinary single-family homes.

According to reporting from Rich McHugh of NewsNation, Minnesota continues to shovel millions of Medicaid dollars to properties owned by a man already indicted in the state’s massive Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, despite overwhelming red flags and a growing list of exploited public programs.

The properties are owned by Gandi Mohamed, also known as Gandi Abdi Kediye, who was indicted in February 2024 on money laundering charges tied to the Feeding Our Future case. Prosecutors allege Mohamed helped launder approximately $1 million in fraudulent funds.

According to the DOJ:

Gandi Yusuf Mohamed, 43, Ikram Mohamed’s brother, was the owner of GAK Properties LLC and GIF Properties LLC, companies used to receive and launder the proceeds of the fraud scheme. Gandi Mohamed also submitted fraudulent meal counts and claims on behalf of his family’s companies. As alleged, between March 2021 and July 2022, Gandi Mohamed fraudulently received and laundered more than $1.1 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds. Gandi Mohamed is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering.

Yet while awaiting trial, Mohamed’s limited liability company continues to benefit handsomely from the state.

His wife reportedly operates multiple “assisted living” facilities out of residential homes in the Minneapolis area.

Those facilities alone received more than $2.3 million in state payments last year.

Even more staggering: since 2016, Mohamed has been paid $49 million by the state’s Minnesota Department of Human Services, according to the Minnesota Reformer.

NewsNation visited three of the locations tied to Mohamed’s LLC. Each one appeared to be a standard single-family residence—not a medical or assisted living facility.

Staff at the homes claimed ignorance of Mohamed’s indictment and declined to explain how such operations qualified for massive Medicaid reimbursements.

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