The FBI went into overdrive to investigate suspected fraud at nearly a dozen Minnesota social services after a YouTube video purporting to show day care facilities that aren’t operational but receiving state and federal funding went viral over the weekend.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that he was aware of the video, created by right-wing influencer Nick Shirley, but insisted the FBI had already “surged” investigative resources and personnel to Minnesota as part of its ongoing fraud investigation that has largely targeted Somali immigrants.
“The FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg,” Patel posted Sunday on X.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office defended its ongoing efforts to crack down on fraud when it was asked about the video.
“The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action,” a spokesperson for the governor’s office said in an email. “He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.”
The Justice Department has been running a sprawling fraud investigation involving some members of Minnesota’s Somali community for years.
In 2022, during the Biden administration, federal prosecutors announced initial indictments in what they called a $250 million scheme to defraud a federally funded child nutrition program. As of last month, prosecutors had charged 77 people. They described Aimee Bock, who is white, as the mastermind of the operation. A jury convicted her in March.
Shirley, 23, who describes himself as an independent journalist, put the subject of Minnesota fraud in the spotlight of conservative media in recent days. His report out of Minneapolis was quickly championed by Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and various right-wing outlets. His video has been viewed millions of times on X and YouTube.
“Here is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet,” Shirley said online. “We uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day.”
Among other things, the video features Shirley in front of what appears to be an inactive child care center in Minneapolis with a sign that reads “Quality Learing Center,” including an apparent misspelling of “learning.”
Shirley contends it received $1.9 million “from the government” this year.
“This is open and blatant fraud taking place here,” Shirley insists, calling it “just one of the hundreds of child daycare centers here inside of Minneapolis being ran by the Somali population.”
Shirley, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is no stranger to right-wing media. He did a live interview with a protester at the Jan. 6, 2021, riot — who was later sentenced to prison before being pardoned by President Donald Trump — that he posted on YouTube.
His YouTube channel says it has 1.2 million followers, and he regularly posts political content, including person-on-the-street interviews from numerous locations. In October, he was a guest at a White House conference on antifa, a decentralized set of extreme left-wing groups.
There was no answer when an NBC News reporter called the child care center Monday. A Child Learning Center at that address in Minneapolis is licensed with the state to care for 99 children. The state has fined the facility twice since 2022 for allegedly not performing a required background check, and several violations were listed from its most recent licensing visit in June.
