What to know about the viral video that renewed scrutiny on fraud in Minnesota

Over the weekend, a viral video produced by a right-wing influencer leveled explosive allegations about Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program – charges that once again put the state in the national spotlight, raised new concerns about fraud and prompted a quick reaction from state regulators.

As the state reviews providers flagged in the video, here’s what to know about the program at the center of the story, where the allegations came from and what state regulators have said in response.

On Friday, right-wing influencer Nick Shirley posted a 43-minute video that alleges that a group of day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis has misappropriated “upwards of $100 million.”

The video soon went viral on social media, and now has more than 1.4 million YouTube views. It prompted a response from several Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. On Dec. 29, three days after the video was first posted, Noem posted on X that ICE agents were knocking on doors in a “massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.”

The video captures Shirley and a man identified as “David” as they visit 10 Minneapolis child care centers that allegedly received public funding to see whether the businesses are actually taking care of children.

In most cases, Shirley and his partner were either unable to get anybody to answer the door or were refused entry. A few employees or clients of the centers challenged their claims, but it’s not clear if any of those individuals were the facility owners. One of the most widely shared clips focused on the Quality Learning Center, which had a misspelled sign and an apparent lack of anyone inside.

Tikki Brown, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families, said it is hard to draw solid conclusions about the child care centers from the video because it’s not clear whether Shirley visited the centers during the week, when they would likely be full of children, or on a weekend or holiday, when they would likely be empty.

At a Dec. 29 news conference, Brown said each of the centers has been visited in the past six months, but none of those unannounced visits turned up evidence of fraud. She said the department has not yet found problems that warrant pausing payments to any of the centers.

Brown said two of the Minneapolis centers featured in the video shut down this year, including Quality Learning Center, which closed just last week. However, a department spokeswoman said later that the center has “decided to remain open.”

Brown declined to provide information about state reviews of Quality Learning Center, or another site featured in the video, Mako Childcare. “We generally don’t disclose information if we have a current, open investigation,” she said.

The department also has not yet answered questions about any violations or other problems that may have been found during the inspections prompted by the video.

Zak Osman is manager of the Minnesota Child Care Center, which Shirley visited last on his video. Osman said the doors are always locked for safety, and the staff was on high alert following President Trump’s recent comments about Somali people, and a subsequent escalation of federal immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities. .

Shirley was there for about 40 seconds before a shift supervisor heard what he was saying and tried to close the door but Shirley was holding onto it, so she pulled it shut hard.

Since the video went viral, the center has been bombarded with phone calls from across the country, with people talking about congresswoman Ilhan Omar and saying things like “give us our money back,” he said.

State workers visited the center Dec. 29, in what Osman said was the fifth audit this year.

Shirley’s video provoked a quick response from Minnesota Republicans, including several who are running for governor.

“The Walz administration had years to address these issues but has frequently ignored or downplayed the issues at every turn,” said Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who’s among those vying to unseat Gov. Tim Walz in his bid for a third term.

“He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed," spokeswoman Claire Lancaster said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

House GOP floor leader Harry Niska said it’s hard for Republicans to trust what the Walz administration says about fraud after the issue has continued to fester. He said the Minnesota House Republican Caucus also provided information about fraud to the man named David who appeared in Shirley’s video.

Shirley, 23, is a right-wing influencer whose YouTube channel has amassed more than 1 million followers. He was one of several influencers who were invited to the White House in October to participate in an “antifa roundtable” — a discussion about left-wing groups and the anti-fascist movement — with President Donald Trump.

He faced criticism for a video he filmed in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2024, when he falsely implied that American tax dollars were used to buy luxury cars and install a Ferris wheel in the city. When another journalist questioned him about the video, Shirley responded that he was “making satire on the internet.”

Shirley filmed content at the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He interviewed a man who participated in the riot and took a piece of mail from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.

The state’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) is aimed at helping low-income families with child care costs so that parents can work. In 2024, the program cost $306 million.

Temporary DHS Commissioner Shireen Gandhi told a panel of state lawmakers in February that Minnesota has about 1,800 licensed child care centers and about 5,800 licensed family child care providers.

She said about 3,600 providers are enrolled in the state’s Child Care Assistance Program. Every year, Gandhi said, state licensers make unannounced site visits to child care providers.

They report any violations or conditions that could be suggestive of fraud to CCAP investigators, she said.

One of the first major scandals involving fraudsters in the Somali community started in 2015, when three Minneapolis day care centers were raided by police and accused of overbilling CCAP. Investigators discovered that some day care operators billed the state for more children than were actually present.

Though some of the individuals convicted in the scandal that would come to be known as Feeding Our Future have received federal sentences of up to 28 years, none of the people convicted in the day care scheme were sentenced to more than five years in prison, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune review of the cases. Two of the convicted fraudsters received sentences of 30 days or less.

In half of the cases, records show, nobody was sent to jail. Prosecutors either dismissed the charges when the owners agreed to repay the stolen funds or never pursued criminal charges against individual owners after the companies pleaded guilty and were ordered to make restitution.

Since 2021, the Child Care Audits and Investigations unit has referred about five cases a year to law enforcement for criminal investigation. She said the unit also stopped payments to 79 child care providers since 2021.

In response to previous questions from the Star Tribune, DHS said that it has taken numerous steps since 2019 to beef up anti-fraud efforts, including using data to flag improper billing requests, enhanced attendance requirements, increased use of video surveillance, a formal system for fraud referrals and more frequent inspections of new providers.

However, the department has not implemented one of the state Legislative Auditor’s chief recommendations: replacing handwritten sign-in sheets with an electronic attendance system.

In 2019, 22 states required some automated way of collecting attendance, while eight other states were developing those systems, according to the legislative auditor.