Tag: fraud

Somali fraudsters got luxury digs, beachside resort, rented Rolls Royce and Lamborghini with stolen funds

These are the lifestyles of the rich and shameless.

The Somali fraudsters convicted in the Feeding Our Future scandal flaunted government-funded lifestyles and robust real estate portfolios with the millions of dollars they bilked from the federal government.

Brazen scammers stole hundreds of millions of dollars of federal COVID relief funds — spending their loot on tony condos, expensive cars, and real estate projects in Kenya — including a four-story apartment building and luxury resort, according to court documents.

Minny insiders marveled this week to The Post at their sheer chutzpah.

Liban Yasin Alishire, 43, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to wire fraud and money laundering, spent $350,000 from his pilfered payouts on a luxury resort.

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ANOTHER state is embroiled in fraud scandal with ‘$77MILLION of taxpayers’ money going missing’… and WWE stars are at the center

Mississippi has joined the list of states embroiled in major fraud scandals, as a welfare scheme trial centered around WWE stars is set to kick off this week. 

The embezzlement scheme saw at least $77 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money go toward frivolous things instead of helping those in need in America’s poorest state, according to authorities.

Instead of helping the less fortunate, cash was splurged on a lavish home in Jackson, cars, paying off a non-profit leader’s speeding ticket, and funding a new $5 million volleyball stadium at Mississippi University, among other items, authorities said. 

A total of seven people have pleaded guilty to state or federal charges related to the fraud case, but one person, former pro wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr., has decided to plead not guilty and stand trial. 

His brother, Brett DiBiase, 37, was also charged in the welfare-fraud scandal. Brett, who also wrestled professionally, pleaded guilty to state and federal charges. 

Meanwhile, his older brother, who received the Million Dollar Championship title in 2010 from their wrestler father, Ted DiBiase Sr., is the only person indicted after he chose to fight money laundering, wire fraud, theft, and conspiracy charges. 

The trial, which is set to begin Tuesday, will detail how DiBiase, 43, allegedly pocketed around $4 million in welfare dollars that he used for himself. 

The fraud in Mississippi comes as similar allegations continue to sweep across Minnesota that suggest alleged scammers, most of Somali descent, are said to have spent millions meant to feed hungry children on flashy cars and swanky travels, according to court evidence obtained by CBS. 

According to prosecutors, DiBiase allegedly concealed money through phony contracts with non-profit organizations, including the Mississippi Community Education Center, in a conspiracy to steal funds from welfare programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

Prosecutors said DiBiase embezzled around $1.1 million and used the cash to buy luxurious items, including a boat and a vehicle. 

Per the contracts, two companies owned by DiBiase were allegedly supposed to look into the need for emergency food aid, provide leadership outreach to the community, and help inner-city children.

But, according to the indictment reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the married father-of-two ‘did not provide and did not intend to provide’ those assistance programs to Mississippians. 

Meanwhile, DiBiase said he has brought forward ‘significant evidence that he did perform work under the relevant contracts,’ according to a November court filing obtained by the outlet. 

The only person involved in the scandal who has been sentenced for his crimes is former Department of Human Services Head John Davis. 

A judge decided Davis, the highest-ranking official embroiled in the conspiracy, will spend 32 years in prison for state charges. He has not yet been sentenced for his federal crimes, WLBT reported. 

He was found guilty of having tens of millions of dollars go toward specific non-profits before he took the money for his own personal use.

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Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills’ Administration Gave No-Bid State Contracts to Somali NGO That Allegedly “Registered Migrants to Vote” — Organization Later Caught in Medicaid Fraud Scandal

The walls are closing in on Maine’s migrant-industrial complex — and the trail leads straight back to Democrat Governor Janet Mills and her administration.

According to reporting from The Maine Wire, dozens of federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) swarmed multiple locations in Lewiston this week tied to Somali-run nonprofits, Medicaid billing operations, and political operatives with deep connections to Maine Democrats.

HSI confirmed it is “actively conducting audits of businesses in Maine to protect America from fraud & ensure businesses only employ legal workers,” adding that hiring unauthorized workers “undermines national security.”

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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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