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This story just keeps getting bigger and bigger so it probably deserves a dedicated thread. There have been rumors about fraud by the Somali diaspora in Minnesota for a while, the story exploded with a New York Times article about a month ago. Here is a gift link that should give you access:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/u...smid=url-share
Well, it turns out that this was the tip of the iceberg. Now they are saying it is far bigger and the US Attorney estimates it to be around $9B (link). Likely the largest fraud case in US history. All happening under Tim Walz's watch.
How did this go on so long? In part, they didn't investigate because they didn't want to appear to be racist. From the NYT article.
In the last week, a young YouTuber named Nick Shirley released a video where he and a guy from Minnesota who has been investigating this drove around to dozens of Somali day cares and businesses and all appeared to be fraudulent.
This X post and video is already in the top 10 most viewed posts of all time on X. 88M views and rapidly counting.
The video is remarkable. None of the day cares seem to have any kids. Most are locked up. Some of the businesses later in the video might have some degree of legitimacy, but most appear fraudulent. If one kid can just walk around and find stuff like this, what on earth is the state and fed government doing?
Interestingly, this Nick Shirley kid is from Farmington, Utah. Here is an article about him from 2020 when he was just getting started.
https://ksltv.com/education-schools/...tardom/438202/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/u...smid=url-share
The fraud scandal that rattled Minnesota was staggering in its scale and brazenness.
Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a government program meant to keep children fed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At first, many in the state saw the case as a one-off abuse during a health emergency. But as new schemes targeting the state’s generous safety net programs came to light, state and federal officials began to grapple with a jarring reality.
Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never provided.
Federal prosecutors say that 59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money has been stolen in three plots they are investigating. That is more than Minnesota spends annually to run its Department of Corrections. Minnesota’s fraud scandal stood out even in the context of rampant theft during the pandemic, when Americans stole tens of billions through unemployment benefits, business loans and other forms of aid, according to federal auditors.
Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a government program meant to keep children fed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At first, many in the state saw the case as a one-off abuse during a health emergency. But as new schemes targeting the state’s generous safety net programs came to light, state and federal officials began to grapple with a jarring reality.
Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never provided.
Federal prosecutors say that 59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money has been stolen in three plots they are investigating. That is more than Minnesota spends annually to run its Department of Corrections. Minnesota’s fraud scandal stood out even in the context of rampant theft during the pandemic, when Americans stole tens of billions through unemployment benefits, business loans and other forms of aid, according to federal auditors.
How did this go on so long? In part, they didn't investigate because they didn't want to appear to be racist. From the NYT article.
In 2020, Minnesota Department of Education officials who administered the program became overwhelmed by the number of applicants seeking to register new feeding sites and began raising questions about the plausibility of some invoices.
Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit group that was the largest provider in the pandemic program, responded with a warning. In an email, the group told the state agency that failing to promptly approve new applicants from “minority-owned businesses” would result in a lawsuit featuring accusations of racism that would be “sprawled across the news.”
Feeding Our Future later sued the agency, which continued reimbursing claims and approving new sites in the months that followed.
A report by Minnesota’s nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor about the lapses that enabled the meals fraud later found that the threat of litigation and of negative press affected how state officials used their regulatory power.
Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit group that was the largest provider in the pandemic program, responded with a warning. In an email, the group told the state agency that failing to promptly approve new applicants from “minority-owned businesses” would result in a lawsuit featuring accusations of racism that would be “sprawled across the news.”
Feeding Our Future later sued the agency, which continued reimbursing claims and approving new sites in the months that followed.
A report by Minnesota’s nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor about the lapses that enabled the meals fraud later found that the threat of litigation and of negative press affected how state officials used their regulatory power.
This X post and video is already in the top 10 most viewed posts of all time on X. 88M views and rapidly counting.
The video is remarkable. None of the day cares seem to have any kids. Most are locked up. Some of the businesses later in the video might have some degree of legitimacy, but most appear fraudulent. If one kid can just walk around and find stuff like this, what on earth is the state and fed government doing?
Interestingly, this Nick Shirley kid is from Farmington, Utah. Here is an article about him from 2020 when he was just getting started.
https://ksltv.com/education-schools/...tardom/438202/
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