How a viral video prompted investigations into alleged fraud at day care centers in Minnesota
As Homeland Security agents were in Minnesota to conduct In what DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called Monday a “massive investigation into child care and other widespread fraud,” many of their targets came not from tips from the FBI, but from a video posted on social media over the weekend.
The video, posted by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley, alleges that nearly a dozen Minnesota child care centers that receive public funds provide no services. As of Monday, the video had been viewed more than a million times, according to YouTube statistics, and tens of millions of times on X.
“While we have questions about some of the methods used in the video, we take very seriously the concerns the video raises regarding fraud,” said Tikki Brown, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families.
In addition to DHS investigations, state officials also visited some sites Monday. They told CBS News that two of the centers featured in the video had already closed their doors earlier this year, although one of those centers informed the state Monday evening that it planned to remain open.
CBS News conducted its own analysis of nearly a dozen child care centers Shirley mentioned: All but two have active licenses, according to state records, and all active locations have been visited by state regulators in the past six months. One of them, Sweet Angel Child Care, Inc., was the subject of an unannounced inspection as recently as December 4.
The CBS News review also found dozens of citations related to safety, cleanliness, equipment and staff training, among other violations, but no evidence of fraud was recorded.
CBS News visited and called several day care centers Monday, but received no response.
Monday’s DHS visits come amid what prosecutors say is a $9 billion COVID-era fraud scandal in Minnesota. Governor Tim Walz and other state officials having contested this figure and defended their management of the crisis.
In Minnesota, 14 specific Medicaid-funded programs are currently under federal investigation, although child care is not one of them.
Earlier this month, CBS News detailed how a group of convicts the fraudsters would have spent part of the millions taxpayer money stolen by people associated with a nonprofit called Feeding our futurewhich aimed to help feed vulnerable children during the pandemic.
Investigators say fraudulent payments to the Feeding Our Future program alone were estimated at $250 million, making it the most expensive in the country Aid scam in the COVID era.
Walz, a Democrat, previously agreed with an estimate by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson that fraud across all programs, including the Feeding Our Future program, which is not a DHS-administered program, could total $1 billion.
“The fraud is not small. It is not isolated. Its magnitude cannot be overstated,” Thompson said last week.
So far, 78 people were arrested as part of the Feeding Our Future program. The majority of them are Somali Americans, although the program manager, Aimee Bock, who was convicted earlier this yearis not. Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the country.
President Trump has called Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” and has targeted the state’s Somali community, announcing last month that he would do so. end protected status from deportation for Somalis in the state. Earlier this month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities, leading to more than 400 arrests.
Late Monday night, Minnesota Republican Rep. Tom Emmer said on social media that he had “three words for the Somalis who committed fraud against American taxpayers: send them home.” If they are here illegally, expel them immediately; if they are naturalized citizens, revoke their citizenship and promptly deport them thereafter. »
