Tag: minnesota

Here We Go Again: Walz’s New Paid Leave Law May Let People Collect Without Working

Some of us have been sounding the alarm bells on the following massive fraud scheme that’s about to hit Minnesota like a January blizzard. Tim Walz and the Democrats who run the state approved “family leave” legislation that would, ostensibly, give Minnesota workers up to 20 weeks of paid leave for the birth of a child or to care for a spouse, child, or other family member with a serious health condition.

But as this writer noted earlier this month, it’s fertile ground for another round of billions of dollars of fraud, courtesy the Minnesota taxpayer.

Going into effect on January 1, the Paid Family and Medical Leave Law means workers would get not only leave but also continued benefits from their employer. Unfortunately, there are no sound mechanisms in place to verify that the employee is actually caring for the designated individual while on leave. Troy Reding, a restaurant owner, said he was worried about how employers would handle multiple leave requests at the same time.

But now, according to Dustin Grage, who has done tremendous work exposing the fraud in Minnesota, the law has a glaring loophole that allows people applying for the benefit to have no job at all.

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Beyond Daycare: How Somali Fraud Spread Across Nutrition, Housing, and Autism Programs

Nick Shirley’s viral video brought attention to widespread daycare fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community. Further investigation reveals Somali participation in multiple benefit schemes, ranging from nutrition programs to housing and autism services.

Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that, of the 92 defendants charged in child nutrition, housing services, and autism program schemes, 82 are Somali Americans.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson called these programs “staggering, industrial-scale fraud” and stated that when investigations are complete, total fraud could exceed $9 billion. Documented theft already includes $300 million from Feeding Our Future, nearly $220 million from autism programs, and $302 million from Housing Stabilization Services, totaling $822 million.

The Somali-linked nonprofit Feeding Our Future was founded in 2016 and during COVID-19 claimed to distribute meals to schoolchildren but instead stole at least $250 million while providing few or no meals. The scheme listed 299 meal sites claiming to serve 90 million meals in less than two years, more than 120,000 meals per day. One FBI-surveilled site claiming 6,000 meals per day actually averaged around 40 visitors.

Federal prosecutors allege only around 3% of funding was spent on food, with the remainder funneled to conspirators. Federal prosecutors indicted 78 suspects, with more than 50 pleading guilty and seven found guilty at trial. State officials spotted early fraud signs in July 2019. When Minnesota’s Department of Education tried to stop payments in December 2020, Feeding Our Future sued the state, alleging racial discrimination. A judge found no legal basis for stopping payments.

Current and former federal sources confirmed some funds ended up with al-Qaida-linked terror group al-Shabaab in Somalia. One recovered text message read “Please send $1,000 to Mogadishu Bakara,” referring to a market previously controlled by al-Shabaab. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced his department will investigate whether tax dollars from Minnesota’s public assistance programs made their way to designated terrorists.

Thompson explained the connection between fraud schemes: “Many defendants in these cases were getting money from multiple government benefit programs, many Medicaid programs. This is how these investigations grew out of Feeding our Future. I think roughly two dozen or so Feeding our Future defendants were getting money from autism clinics and that’s why, that is how we learned about the autism fraud.”

Widespread fraud in Minnesota’s autism services system followed the same pattern as other scams. The first defendant charged was Asha Farhan Hassan, who, along with her partners, approached parents in the Somali community to recruit their children into Smart Therapy. The children did not have autism diagnoses, but Hassan and her partners worked with professionals to have the recruited children improperly qualified for autism services.

Parents received monthly cash kickbacks ranging from approximately $300 to $1,500 per child. Prosecutors also charged another defendant who approached parents in the Somali community to recruit children for his clinic, which ultimately submitted $6 million in claims for Medicaid reimbursement.

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Minn. Somali-run day care bizarrely reports their documents were stolen in mysterious break-in — but cops tell a different story

A Somali-run day care in Minneapolis is claiming somebody broke in and stole “important documents,” but cops say the facility didn’t report anything was actually taken. 

The alleged burglary comes as the national spotlight shines on the unfolding multibillion-dollar fraud scandal involving Minnesota human services, with particular scrutiny on day care facilities run by Somali immigrants after dozens of people from the community have been busted for pilfering state funds.

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.

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Misspelled Minnesota day care closed last week, state claims — on same day owners told The Post it’s up and running

The misspelled day care at the center of viral outrage over the Somali community’s multibillion-dollar fraud scandal shut down last week, the head of Minnesota’s child services department claimed Monday — at the same time that the owners of the facility put on a dog and pony show for The Post to demonstrate that it was really a working day care and not a front.

Tikki Brown, commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, told reporters that her staff found no evidence of fraud at any of the day cares highlighted by YouTuber Nick Shirley.

She stated that the Quality “Learing” Center had closed. 

Apparently the owners of the site — which has gotten up to $4 million in taxpayer funds and racked up dozens of inspection violations — didn’t get the memo.

At least 20 kids were seen entering the Quality “Learing” Center Monday afternoon after being bused in. One employee shouted down The Post’s attempt to ask questions: “Don’t f–king come to this area. Get the f–k out of here,” he said.

The day care says it is open Monday through Thursday from 2 to 10 p.m., and the owner’s son Ibrahim Ali showed up Monday to claim all the allegations were a big misunderstanding.

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Guess Who Finally Showed Up at Minneapolis ‘Quality Learing Center’ This Week

YouTuber Nick Shirley did what no one in the legacy media bothered to do: he exposed the rampant fraud being perpetrated by Somali-run daycares in Minnesota by going to these “daycares” with a camera and asking questions. That’s it. That’s how easy it was for Shirley to amass more than 120 million views of his 42-minute story on X, and blow wide open the ongoing fraud scandal in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Shirley’s exposé was so damning that Governor Tim Walz was forced to respond, even though his statement — issued through a spokesperson — was “weak sauce,” as our Matt Vespa put it. 

“The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action,” the spokesperson said. “He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.”

Sure.

One of the daycares, with the misspelled name, “Quality Learing Center,” supposedly cares for 99 children. When Shirley showed up, the building appeared empty.

Now, The New York Post is reporting that the owners are getting short-tempered with reporters and apparently trucking in those missing kids.

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Luxury cars and private villas: See how Minnesota fraudsters spent millions intended for hungry kids

Luxury cars, private villas and overseas wire transfers: CBS News obtained dozens of files and photos that reveal how Minnesota fraudsters blew through hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars as part of one of the biggest COVID-era fraud schemes.

The files document a spending spree in which defendants, many of Somali descent, took taxpayer money meant to feed hungry children and used it to buy cars, property and jewelry. Videos show them popping champagne at an opulent Maldives resort. In a text message, one defendant boasts: “You are gonna be the richest 25 year old InshaAllah [God willing].”

The documents feature exhibits from a recent federal trial, many of which are being made public by CBS News for the first time. The exhibits include:

  • A confirmation email for a stay in an overwater villa with a private pool at Radisson Blu Resort Maldives
  • Lakefront property in Minnesota
  • Receipts showing wire transfers to China and East Africa
  • First class tickets to Istanbul and Amsterdam
  • A 2021 Porsche Macan
  • Stacks of cash, texted between defendants

At the sentencing of a defendant who used taxpayer funds for cars and the Maldives vacation, 24-year-old Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel admonished him, saying: “Where others saw a crisis and rushed to help, you saw money and rushed to steal.” He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $48 million in restitution for his role in the fraud scheme.

Nur is one of dozens who siphoned hundreds of millions in stolen taxpayer funds — with questions still swirling about where all the money went. The crime has drawn renewed attention in recent weeks: House Republicans last week launched a probe into Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s handling of the cases, and the Treasury Department said it will investigate whether money made its way to al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab, which is based in Somalia. 

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Tim Walz Attacks President Trump After HHS Department Freezes Childcare Payments to Minnesota Amid Widespread Somali Fraud

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz attacked President Trump in his latest statement in response to allegations of rampant fraud in the Somali community.

Somali healthcare and daycare scammers may have stolen more than $9 billion in taxpayer money in Minnesota.

Walz lashed out at President Trump and accused him of letting fraudsters out of prison.

“We’ve spent years cracking down on fraud – referring cases to law enforcement, shutting down and auditing high-risk programs,” Walz said.

“Trump keeps letting fraudsters out of prison,” Walz said.

Later Tuesday, the Health and Human Services Department announced it is freezing all childcare payments to Minnesota amid allegations of widespread fraud.

“We have turned off the money spigot,” HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said.

The HHS took three actions against the rampant fraud in Minnesota: All payments across the country will require justification and photo evidence before money is sent to a state.

All individuals in Nick Shirley’s video have been identified and audits have been demanded.

The HHS has also launched a fraud reporting hotline.

Walz lashed out at President Trump again.

“This is Trump’s long game,” Walz.

“We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue – but this has been his plan all along,” Walz said.

“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz added.

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Walz turned ‘blind eye’ to fraud warnings in Minnesota: GOP state committee chair

Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins (R) says she warned Gov. Tim Walz (D) about alleged fraud within the state’s social services programs, but to no avail.

“He has turned a blind eye for so long that he cannot deny there were so many whistleblower reports, so many media reports,” Robbins told the New York Post on Tuesday. “For them to say ‘We did not know’ is just not true.”

Robbins, chair of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy committee, also reposted on the social platform X a letter she sent in February to Shireen Gandhi, commissioner of the state’s Department of Human Services. In the letter, Robbins detailed allegations that multiple day care facilities fraudulently billed Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program. 

Robbins, who is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination to take on Walz next November, added on X that she gave Walz’s administration “a roadmap to the childcare fraud” outlined by independent journalist Nick Shirley on Friday.

Shirley’s video detailing his investigation into the growing fraud scandal renewed federal scrutiny into the matter. The Department of Homeland Security has dispatched agents to Minneapolis as part of its probe, while the Small Business Administration halted grants to the state Monday. 

Asked for comment, Walz’s office pointed The Hill to an op-ed in which he denounced that “our state’s generosity has been taken advantage of by an organized group of fraudsters who’ve put their greed and self-dealing above the needs of children, seniors and people with disabilities.”

The governor’s office also noted that he has appointed a new director of program integrity to help investigate the problem, and it pointed to reporting that Robbins had failed to communicate with state agencies over whistleblower information related to the fraud.

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SAY WHAT? Liberal Politico Reporter Suggests Somali Daycare Owners Could Justifiably Shoot People for Asking Questions

Josh Gerstein, a journalist who works at the liberal outlet Politico, tweeted something on Monday night that is raising a lot of eyebrows.

In response to the explosive report from independent journalist Nick Shirley about Somali fraud at daycare centers in Minnesota, Gerstein tweeted:

“At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws”

Who knew that liberal journos support ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws? Of course, Minnesota, being controlled by Democrats, has no such laws, but still.

Isn’t it amazing how journalists always rush to attack the person reporting the wrongdoing in a situation like this rather than calling out, you know, the wrongdoing itself?

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Jessica Tarlov of FOX News Ends the Year on a Dumb Note About Nick Shirley’s Report on Somali Fraud in Minnesota

Jessica Tarlov, the liberal panelist on The Five on FOX News, had a predictably dumb take on Nick Shirley and his explosive video report on fraud at Somali daycare centers in Minnesota.

You all know she would have a bad take on this, didn’t you? If so, Tarlov does not disappoint.

She suggests that there is ‘no way’ that Shirley actually uncovered all the fraud that he claims in his report.

Transcript via Real Clear Politics:

JESSICA TARLOV: It’s going to get incredibly complicated for [Gov. Tim Walz] and I’m sure that he and his team are talking about whether he could mount another, you know, I don’t want to say challenge because Donald Trump won’t be running again, but obviously he’s been considering 2028.

I think that that will be more difficult when something like this has gone on in your state while you are in office, even if you’re not personally involved in it. The program that he was talking about that you reference Kellyanne’s school lunches, which I’ve seen no fraud about that, that kids go to school and they get lunch and they should. Yes, school lunch is a good thing.

Sometimes breakfast too, even. Nick Shirley’s reporting there’s no way that this kid walking around uncovered $100 million worth of fraud on his own. There have been tons of people working behind the scenes quietly, including independent local journalists that have been exposing this.

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