When an independent journalist visited Somali-run daycares in Minnesota, as part of a broader Minnesota fraud investigation, he found they were taking millions in taxpayer dollars — with almost no kids in sight.
Now, The Dallas Express has learned Minnesota legislators warned state officials about childcare fraud earlier this year, but they failed to shut it down. Meanwhile, whistleblowers claim they were ignored and faced retaliation.
“They were warned,” said Republican state Rep. Kristin Robbins to The Dallas Express. “Clearly, for a year, they have done nothing.”
Robbins – chair of the Fraud Prevention committee – blamed Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Children, Youth, and Families for failing to take action.
“This is a pattern that we have seen over and over again,” she said. “Even when we highlight it, even when we give the department lists, they haven’t taken action. So for them to say, ‘Oh, we didn’t know’ – it’s just not true.”
Over the weekend, Youtuber Nick Shirley posted a documentary where he took to the streets of Minneapolis, seeking to check in his fictional son “Joey” at numerous government-funded, Somali-run daycares.
One by one, they locked the doors and turned him away. At most of the centers, he did not find any children. But the centers were receiving millions in taxpayer dollars through the state Child Care Assistance Program.
The documentary went viral, prompting investigations from the FBI, as The Dallas Express reported. According to a December 29 statement from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Investigations with ICE were conducting on-the-ground investigations in Minneapolis.
“As of this afternoon, no payments had been stopped to these providers,” said DCYF Communications Director Carissa Larsen to The Dallas Express on December 29.
Larsen said she did not yet have all the information from that day, but would inform DX of any developments.
“We take the concerns raised in this video very seriously,” Larsen said. “Each of the facilities mentioned in the video has been visited at least once in the last six months as part of our typical licensing process. Our staff are out in the community today to visit each of these sites again so that we can look into the concerns raised in the video.”
The recent news built on previous reporting from Christopher Rufo, which documented allegations that millions in Minnesota taxpayer dollars were funneled through fraud schemes and routed overseas to the terror group al-Shabaab.
“The bulk of the fraud we have found so far is in the Somali community, but some of the whistleblowers who have helped us are also from the Somali community,” Robbins said.
Sounding The Alarm
A whistleblower first submitted a tip about daycare fraud to an education staff member in fall 2024, according to Robbins. Legislative staff looked into this, and quickly found concerns.
“Several of them didn’t look operational, they had blacked out windows, no playgrounds, and didn’t look like anyone was there during business hours,” Robbins said.
Staff referenced the Minnesota DHS database, and investigated daycares that were receiving $1 million or more in state payments.
“They had multiple violations, so that was really concerning,” Robbins said. “Like, ‘are our children at risk?’ And it didn’t even look like children were there.”
One of the viral daycares – the “Quality Learning Center” – had a history of violations with Minnesota DHS, according to Newsweek. The center was shut down late December 29.
The Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, in the state House, met on February 10, 2025.
At the time, Republican state Rep. Walter Hudson asked officials with the Office of Legislative Auditor how they plan to catch fraudulent daycares when monitoring state spending.
“Are you going to be able to catch something like was reported by Jay Kolls in recent weeks, of an alleged daycare center that’s very clearly not actually operating as such?” Hudson asked.
In January, Kolls – a reporter with local outlet KSTP – visited several local daycares receiving millions of dollars in funding, despite numerous safety violations. His findings were similar to Shirley’s.
Legislators questioned Minnesota DHS Temporary Commissioner Shireen Gandhi about the daycare fraud on February 24, 2025.
At that point, the agency had only recovered $2.4 million from potentially fraudulent daycare funding since 2020, according to Gandhi.
Republican state Rep. Marion Rarick said this raised a red flag.
“They’ve recovered $2.4 million when they’re paying out $200 to $300 million per year,” said Republican state Rep. Marion Rarick. “That just seems like an absolute drop in the bucket – $600,000 per year in recovered money.”
Republican state Rep. Patti Anderson asked Gandhi if the agency cuts off payments to centers suspected of fraud.
“Do you cut off the payments right away, when there’s suspected fraud and when a case is referred?” she asked.
Gandhi confirmed this, but said officials make the decision on a “case-by-case basis.”
Robbins asked how many payments the agency had stopped for a “credible allegation of fraud” in the past year.
“I don’t have that number handy, I can get it to you,” Gandhi replied.
Two Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators were embedded in Minnesota DHS as of 2019, Robbins said in the hearing. She asked if they were still there.
“I’m told that they’re no longer embedded,” Gandhi replied.
Robbins told DX legislators sent Minnesota DHS officials a list of roughly 100 daycare providers receiving more than $1 million, with numerous license violations, which “we raised concerns about in the hearing and in writing.
“Those are many of the ones that Mr. Shirley visited,” Robbins said.
Silencing Whistleblowers
Meanwhile, whistleblowers have been approaching Robbins and other legislators about fraud for months, she said. They allegedly tried approaching their agency’s Office of Inspector General or the state attorney general’s office, with little success.
Whistleblowers have reported retaliation specifically from Minnesota DHS, according to Robbins.
“We had significant reports of whistleblower retaliation when we first opened the committee,” Robbins said.
“They do not feel comfortable reporting through their agency because of past retaliation,” she added. “They felt in the agency that they were being surveilled electronically on their computers for who might be talking to me.”
Minnesota DHS Media Relations Specialist Scott Peterson told The Dallas Express the department has “strong policies and procedures,” consistent with state and federal whistleblower protections, for employees who report concerns or misconduct.
“Any perception that employees are being discouraged from raising issues, or that efforts are being made to identify those who speak up, is false and runs counter to our values and expectations,” Peterson said. “Retaliation of any kind is strictly prohibited.”
Meanwhile, other whistleblowers reported being ignored by the attorney general’s office, according to Robbins.
“Whistleblowers say that they’ve tried to report to the attorney general, and generally they say they have not been given a response,” she said. “Given the scale of the fraud, they’ve only prosecuted a small number of cases.”
Attorney General Press Secretary Brian Evans told The Dallas Express Ellison “takes the issue of fraud very seriously.” He said since 2019, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has prosecuted more than 300 cases of such fraud and won more than $70 million in civil recoveries and criminal resolutions.
“Legislators have not passed along any whistleblower reports with the Attorney General’s Office,” Evans said. “Attorney General Ellison and his office are working hard to combat fraud and would appreciate support from the legislature in that fight.”
Ellison’s office has civil, not general criminal, authority, according to Evans – meaning he can only file criminal charges for Medicaid fraud, or at the request of local prosecutors.
“State law does not give the Attorney General’s Office the authority to investigate and prosecute non-Medicaid related criminal fraud, including at daycare programs,” he said.
Ellison plans to ask the legislature for more resources for his anti-fraud unit, according to Evans. He said the attorney general “will continue working to aggressively prosecute fraud wherever possible.”
After legislators expanded the state’s Whistleblower Protection Law this year, tipsters can now report violations to legislators, or law enforcement like local police, the FBI, or the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“They need to be held accountable and they need to start taking action,” Robbins said. “There’s ample authority in the statute to stop payment for credible allegations of fraud, and they should start doing that.”
Expanding Bureaucracy
While legislators raised concerns about daycare fraud with Minnesota DHS, the agency was shifting children’s and family services to the new Department of Children, Youth, and Families. The transition began in July 2024, and completed by July 2025.
Robbins said Minnesota DHS officials should have handed off the list of daycares, receiving more than $1 million with numerous violations, to DCYF.
“I gave them a roadmap, I gave them a list,” Robbins said. “They should have informed DCYF when they handed over the program.”
The Dallas Express asked Larsen if Minnesota DHS handed off the list.
“Office of the Inspector General functions were at DHS until they moved over to DCYF in June,” she said. “DCYF and DHS continue to work closely together.”
Larsen said fraud hurts families who need services, and erodes public trust. She said the agency has “no tolerance for fraud.”
“We’re committed to doing everything we can to investigate allegations and quickly respond,” she said. “Our program integrity efforts are strong, and we know that fraudsters are always changing their tactics so we are always evolving.”
Larsen added DCYF is committed to ensuring every dollar reaches its intended destination.
“We will not stand for fraud being committed, and if any of the concerns raised in the video are found to be true we will take every action within our authority to address the issues,” she said.
State bureaucrats have been playing a “game of hot potato,” according to Robbins. But she said the buck stops with Walz.
“No one is ever held responsible. That is the failure of the governor to fire his commissioners, or the people who run these programs, and clean house. He is not taking it seriously,” Robbins said. “He has turned a blind eye despite knowing about it. This was in the media, we did a public hearing on it. They did nothing.”
Deeper Issues
The Fraud Prevention committee held another hearing December 17 about another form of fraud – in assisted living and adult care. Robbins said the meeting was the first public discussion of this fraud.
Legislators questioned Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Brooke Cunningham on potential fraud in state assisted living and adult care programs.
“We are also not currently aware of any credible allegations of financial fraud within the assisted living space because MDH is charged with the health and safety of assisted living facilities,” Cunningham said.
When a center receives payment for nursing services, agency staff visit sites to observe and conduct interviews, according to Cunningham. If they see unlicensed personnel, a resident not receiving services, or a resident who does not actually need services, they can refer the case for investigation.
But in the meeting, Robbins pointed out major concerns. A defendant in the infamous Feeding Our Future scam, which defrauded $250 million from Minnesota taxpayers from 2019 to 2021, is currently receiving money under the assisted living program.
This person was indicted in February 2024 for laundering $1.1 million in Feeding Our Future, and will face trial in April 2026, according to Robbins.
“If someone has been indicted in Feeding Our Future, that’s a credible allegation of fraud and they should not be getting state money for any other program,” she said in the meeting. “This same person was paid an additional $49 million for other state programs between 2019 to 2024.”
She pulled up a chart, showing the individual has been funneling millions in taxpayer money through multiple houses under the assisted living program. Robbins said officials granted him a provisional license for yet another facility in September.
“That’s what I keep trying to get through to the department – it’s the same pattern, it’s just a different program,” Robbins told DX. “It’s the same pattern as we had in Feeding Our Future, which is the big one everyone knows about. But it also happened in autism centers, in sober homes, in housing stabilization. Now we’re finding it in adult day care and assisted living.”
Robbins asked members of the public to continue sending whistleblower reports to legislators through an online portal.
“We found way more than we expected,” she said. “This is not about a certain community. This is about people who are committing criminal fraud in our state. And no matter where they live or what their background is, we need to prosecute them.”