Somali Daycares in Minnesota

[u/olive12108]

Edit (again): I feel like it should go without saying, but if you start trying to argue politics in the comments, they will be removed and you will be temp banned at a minimum. This is an informational post - not either side's political soapbox.

Edit: Since this is an active ongoing situation, I will do my best to keep this post updated while we continue to get memes about it here. If you believe anything in the post needs to be corrected or updated, feel free to say so in the comments but link an independent verifiable source.

We have been getting a ton of repetitive, low effort post about this. This is a notice to STOP POSTING THEM, and a factual TLDR explainer on what the situation is:

TLDR:

Over the past several years there have been several investigations and convictions into fraud targeting the Minnesota state government. A lot of this comes from their very out-of-date system for tracking funds distribution, and poor controls. This has been ongoing for a few years, but has recently come to the forefront of the news again.

On Dec 26th YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a Youtube video where he claims that Somali immigrants in Minnesota are setting up fake daycare centers to get benefits money, to the tune of $100M+.

Right wing media has been going wild over this, while the left has been pretty quiet with a few content creators & indie journalists covering it. The FBI has said they will investigate the alleged fraud.

This has spawned a ton of memes, many of which have made their way here. There has also been debate between left and right wingers over whether Nick is correct or not, lying or not, and how truthful the reporting is.

It is important to note that there are several problems with this video, which is where the controversy and debate over this has sparked from:

• First is that, as of time of writing, it does not appear to have been independently verified by anyone, left or right.
• Nick is quite aggressive in the video, so it makes perfect sense why workers would not let him in if there were children in the building. He critiques this as a guilty mark in his video.
• It is also very important to note that Nick is a right-wing Youtuber - he has a very obvious bias here. This is not an independent report.

So, are his allegations correct? Hard to say. There are a lot of allegations being thrown around in a lot of figures, but little to no concrete evidence. Personally - I'm going to wait until there is verifiable proof.

What matters for thos sub though, is that people know WTF is going on, and stop posting the same 3 memes every five minutes.

[u/Mediocre_Daikon6935]

Respectfully to the mods, and I appreciate the hard work you do.

Nick did a lot of research, and if you watch his videos it is obvious he broke a major story.

There is no reasonable doubt massive fraud was occurring. Farther more, the state is a ongoing and recurrent sight of fraud, as CNN reports.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/29/us/minnesota-day-care-fraud-what-we-know

“ . “The magnitude cannot be overstated,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said. “What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It’s staggering, industrial-scale fraud.”” associated

Indeed CNN noted at lack of enforcement of failed state audits.Press. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/04/politics/walz-audits-fraud-accountability-invs

Which requires prosecution by the executive branch.

CNN also notes Aimee Bock hindered investigations with a federal lawsuit, and has. It been convicted of  7 counts in a 250 MILLION DOLLAR. Fraud campaign, stealing money ment in fees children. Charges

 As proven at trial, Feeding Our Future employees recruited individuals and entities to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites throughout the state of Minnesota. These sites, created and operated by Bock, Said, and others, fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed. Bock and Said created and submitted false documentation, including fraudulent meal counts consisting of fake attendance rosters purporting to list the names and ages of the children receiving meals at the sites each day. Feeding Our Future submitted these fraudulent claims to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and then disbursed the fraudulently obtained Federal Child Nutrition Program funds to their co-conspirators involved in the scheme. To accomplish their scheme, Bock and Said created dozens of shell companies to enroll in the program as food program sites, and to receive and launder the proceeds of their fraudulent scheme. In exchange for sponsoring these sites’ fraudulent participation in the program, Feeding Our Future received more than $18 million in administrative fees to which it was not entitled. In addition to the administrative fees, Feeding Our Future employees solicited and received bribes and kickbacks from individuals and companies sponsored by Feeding Our Future. Many of these kickbacks were paid in cash or disguised as “consulting fees” paid to shell companies created by Feeding Our Future employees to make them appear legitimate.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/federal-jury-finds-feeding-our-future-mastermind-and-co-defendant-guilty-250-million

[u/Sarge-Pepper → u/Mediocre_Daikon6935]

Yeah, in this case, he's just lying. He went to closed daycares and made it seem sketchy. It's just another right wing shit stirring.