B (8:47)

Did you come during their normal operating hours when you came to visit?

C (8:50)

I came at 11am I believe. And that also came the following day, later in the day. The point of it is not whether or not I came at the right, at the right time of their operation hours. The point is, blacked outdoors, they can't give you any information. You call that number, no one answers. I wasn't trying to go inside. And they. There should be a way for somebody to actually be able to call that number and somebody be able to answer. These aren't real businesses.

B (9:12)

But surely you don't think a daycare should just be unlocked. You shouldn't be able to just walk into a daycare, be a reception. No, every daycare is locked.

C (9:22)

And so, okay, you bring up a fair point then. But why can't they actually give me information how to enroll?

A (9:28)

Take a look at what CBS News Minnesota said about this. And as Adam Mockler says, CBS News Minnesota blows open Nick Shirley's fraud story by showing security camera footage of children there the same day Shirley was there. And he just showed up at times where the kids weren't there. Here, play this clip.

D (9:48)

This is ABC Learning center in Minneapolis.

C (9:51)

They have to learn.

D (9:52)

ABC and numbers director Ahmed Hassan gave WCCO a tour after finding his daycare in the national spotlight.

C (9:59)

All right, we've arrived to ABC Learning Center.

D (10:03)

In a now viral video, right wing YouTuber Nick Shirley claims nearly a dozen daycare centers in Minnesota are taking public funds but not providing a service. He says ABC Learning center is one of them. Knocking on the door in mid December.

C (10:15)

I would like to check a child in the daycare.

D (10:17)

Hassan says his employee didn't respond because Shirley was in a group of about eight people and his staff were concerned about recent ICE activity. Is this daycare committing fraud?

A (10:26)

No, no, no. We're not committing fraud.

D (10:29)

Hasan showed us security footage from the same day Shirley was here. According to the timestamps in the videos, this woman takes a young child into the center at around 9am that day, about three hours before Shirley arrives at the door. Closer to the street. Within the hour after Shirley leaves, a woman arrives at the other door with a stroller. A larger family heads inside. A few hours later Tuesday afternoon, WCCO found at least a dozen children at ABC Learning center, which is licensed with the state. Records show Minnesota officials last visited the daycare in November, noting some corrected and ongoing violations related to day to day operations, but no record of fraud.

E (11:05)

What did I do? I'm just a typical human being who.

A (11:09)

Wants to live and do the right thing. I have kids to feed.

D (11:13)

Umi Hassan, the daycare's current owner, believes these latest fraud accusations are political. Both she and Hasan are Somali Americans.

A (11:20)

We pay our taxes.

E (11:22)

We do whatever we can to Be.

A (11:24)

A law abiding citizen.

E (11:26)

At the same time, when one Somali does something wrong, we all get collective banishment.

D (11:32)

With Shirley's video now approaching 2.3 million views on YouTube alone, they say they are getting nonstop phone calls harassing them.

E (11:39)

I was looking for a place for my granddaughter.

D (11:41)

With many of those calls attached to out of state phone numbers.

A (11:44)

They normally say, knock, knock, we're going.

F (11:47)

To come, you're going to arrest, you know, something like that.

D (11:53)

Hasan says they turned over attendance records to comply with the Department of Homeland Security request. They're now waiting to hear back. CBS News is reviewing records related to the same daycares. All but two have active licenses and Aaron. While the active places have violations related to safety or staff training, there's no recorded evidence.

A (12:10)

Here is a longer version of CNN confronting Shirley. Play this clip.

B (12:14)

We're from CNN. Can we talk to you? This is MAGA YouTuber Nick Shirley back at a daycare in Minnesota he alleged was a fraudulent facility. In a now viral video.

C (12:25)

You are going to say this is a left or right issue, but no, fraud is fraud. So I'm not out here trying to put a twist on things.

B (12:30)

Shirley's viral video released over the weekend in which he says he's uncovering tens of millions of dollars in fraud at Minneapolis daycares run by the Somali community was retweeted by Elon Musk and Vice President J.D. vance. In the video, Shirley tries to open locked doors and talk to people at various daycares he claims are frauds. Did you come during their normal operating hours when you came to visit?

C (12:53)

I came at 11am I believe, and I also came the following day, later in the day. The point of it is not whether or not I came at the right, at the right time of their operation hours. The point is, blacked outdoors, they can't give you any information. You call that number. No one answers. I wasn't trying to go inside. And they, there should be a way for somebody to actually be able to call that number and somebody be able to answer. These aren't real businesses.

B (13:15)

But surely you don't think a daycare should just be unlocked. You shouldn't be able to just walk into a daycare reception. No, every daycare is locked.

C (13:25)

And so okay, you bring up a fair point then. But why can't they actually give me information how to enroll a child?

B (13:30)

Federal law enforcement has been investigating fraud in Minnesota for several years. Both Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Cash Patel said on social media they've indicted dozens of defendants DHS has posted multiple videos of agents they say are conducting a massive fraud investigation. Do you think that federal law enforcement hasn't done enough? I mean, they would say, look, these fraud cases have been going on, but. But they've already done, like, 80 indictments. The cases have been going on, you know, for years.

C (13:57)

And why did I show up one day in Minnesota and go to all these daycares? No children. They're receiving millions of dollars. We uncovered nearly 100 million, $110 million in fraud in one day.

B (14:06)

How do you know that all the allegations that you're making are true?

C (14:09)

How do I know that they're true? Well, we showed you guys the. We showed you guys what was happening, and then you guys can go ahead and make your own.

B (14:15)

Now we're coming so we can make our own analysis. Are you 100 sure you're true?

C (14:19)

Yeah, I am 100 sure I'm true.

B (14:21)

CNN is looking into Shirley's claims. Hi, my name is Whitney Wilde. I'm a correspondent for cnn. We reached out to several of the daycares featured in the now viral video. Only one daycare facility answered and said they are a legitimate business. Have you seen the videos, you know, purporting that some of these daycares don't have kids? Inside Minnesota, Republicans say despite the new focus from the Trump administration, they have been sounding the alarm on fraud for years. You know, we have talked about fraud. We have gotten stories. We have. We've tried to push this forward every way that we can. At the daycare where Shirley showed back up a stream of children walk inside. You're saying that this is a fraudulent daycare. There's kids being dropped off right now.

E (15:02)

Yes.

C (15:03)

The commissioner of children literally said a week ago this place was closed. They're showing face right now.

B (15:07)

A viral video disputed claims, and their full fallout remains to be seen.

A (15:14)

Whitney, you mentioned in your story that there were dozens of convictions going back to 2022. Can you explain what those convictions established?

B (15:26)

Well, this was really the beginning of this massive fraud case that has now led to more than 50. More than 50 convictions. 56 people at least convicted as of September of this year. Jim, at least 78 people have been indicted in that case. It was this sprawling investigation that, you know, DOJ has really touted as their effort to try to root out what is a fraud problem here in Minnesota. Jim.

G (15:55)

And then, of course, that many of them did begin a number of years ago.

A (15:58)

Whitney Wild, Good.

G (15:59)

Good to have you there.

A (15:59)

Thanks very much. Here is Abraham Ali, manager of Quality Learning Center. Here's what he described. Play this clip.

F (16:07)

A lot of the journalism that's been going on the last couple of days has been really dishonest. I don't want to point fingers at anybody, but I do feel like what was done was someone came to our building outside of operating hours when there's a specific sign on our door that says our days and our hours. He came outside of those hours and then claimed, hey, they're closed and they're still making money. They're using taxpayer money to work. And it's like, you don't come outside of, outside, outside of operational hours and then say they're using taxpayer money. That was completely false. As you can see, we're open Mondays through Thursdays, 2 to 10pm he was here earlier. I don't see him right now. So it's like, are you trying to record that we're doing fraud or are you trying to put the Somali name and the fraud in the same sentence? That's what really hurt us the last couple of days. We're open, we've been open, we haven't closed. We've been open for eight, eight and a half years now. We haven't closed once during that period. So I want to touch on that first. The second thing is, which is kind of laughable, is the sign. We mess up the sign, we pay somebody to do our sign. He incorrectly did it. We're having him work on it. We paid him to correct the sign. He said, it'll be done by this week. So by the end of this week, our sign will be fine. The third thing, which is the fraud claim, there's no fraud going on whatsoever. Kids come to us, clients come to us, their parents come to us. They're here daily, they leave on time, they come on time. There's no fraud going on whatsoever. Those claims came from. I mean, if a group of people does fraud, you don't paint the brush with everyone in that group. You don't say, hey, there's a group of people that are somebody that are doing fraud. Say, hey, every single somebody must be part of fraud. No, we're business owners and being a business owner is extremely tough. Trying to raise kids that are not yours, that are others is extremely tough as well. But then for people to come and go like, hey, they're not really working, they're just taking free money. If any of us have children here, raising children is not easy. Trying to, trying to help them, school work, trying to build their manners is not easy work. So when somebody comes and does that. It's just, it's really disheartening in the community itself as Minnesota, as Somalis, as people that own this business for eight years now, we do nothing but to uplift the community, uplift our children, uplift one another, uplift non Somalis, uplift Somalis to make a better community for all of us. So somebody comes in and says, hey, they're not doing it. It's just like, like if you would have came during operational hours and there's no one here. Okay, you've got a point. He came. I think it was 11am Obviously there's no cars in the parking lot. If you look around, there's cars now. Yeah. Cuz our employees are here, our children are here, our clients are here. But don't come at 10:00am like, hey, their door's not open. Obviously our door's not going to be open at 10am we're not open 10am the sign on the door says that. So is this.

A (18:48)

And just so you see how creepy it is with, with this guy Nick Shirley showing up. Yeah. You can see why these child care properties weren't eager to let in some random dude asking where are the kids? As Aaron Rupert puts it here, play this clip.

D (19:02)

We're just wondering where the, where the kids are.

C (19:06)

My name is Nick Shirley.

E (19:07)

Nick Shirley.

C (19:11)

Oh, we are from ourselves.

E (19:13)

Yeah.

G (19:13)

Hello.

C (19:14)

We'd like to ask where's the money's going. Look at that. Shut us down. Where are the children at? No children inside of this daycare center. And look at this daycare center right here. No children inside of this daycare center. But between those buildings, over $2.6 million.

A (19:33)

I want to give a hat tip to this tiktoker Priya existing, who I think does a pretty good breakdown of everything here as well. Let me show you this clip right here.

E (19:42)

So I'm getting a lot of messages about all of this alleged fraud that's happening in Minnesota because it's my home state. The first message I got was from a friend of mine asking me if I'd seen that video that wackadoodle Nick Shirley did going to that like quick learning center or whatever it's called. And I'm not saying there's not fraud going on in Minnesota. I'm just saying that some of it seems to be from Nick Shirley. So he goes to this learning center. It's a daycare that has taken millions of dollars. He's knocking, nobody's coming to the door. But it would seem that he's actually at the Back door. So here he is at the front door. It's a restaurant called Abdi's Kitchen. That learning center shut down due to multiple violations, none of which I don't believe had to do with fraud. But he doesn't tell his followers that it's actually a restaurant. So I got a bunch of messages about that, and then I got this comment on Instagram, which is a bad faith question. This guy is maga. And there has been a huge MAGA push to think about Somali people as fraudsters. Usually what they're referencing is the Feeding Our Future case. And yes, a lot of Somali people were implicated in that case. But what they conveniently leave out is this woman, Amy Bach. In 2016, she founded the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. And in 2020 is when the fraud began. This was at the beginning of the pandemic. This was during DJT's first term. He completely mishandled the pandemic to the point that he loosened oversight on these kinds of programs, allowing claims to get through unverified. And Feeding Our Future claimed that they were giving thousands of meals to children, and they never did. They pocketed that money to the tune of $240 million. In 2022, during Biden's term, Biden's FBI raided the organization, and the organization shut down. There were 78 suspects, Amy Bach and all of her employees. In March of 2025, 40 of those people, including Amy Bach, were either found guilty or pled guilty. Merrick Garland called it the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme that there ever was, and Biden's administration shut it down. So Most of the 78 people who were indicted and the 40 people who were found or pled guilty were Somali, but they were also box employees. She was described as an authoritarian who silenced dissent within her ranks, discouraged scrutiny from state regulators, and cut off people who refused to comply with fudging the numbers. She is the person who created all of this. And now this has become a huge right wing talking point and because of racism and xenophobia, but no one ever mentions her, the person who created it. Now, there's a ton more to this story, but I know that this guy asked me to cover this, you know, to prove that Somali people are bad, because that's what this admin wants you to think. The reality is every community has bad actors. That is not an indication of a community as a whole. Unless maybe we're talking about some white women like Amy Bach, who actually was only caught because of Somali whistleblowers. They were the ones who dissented? The ones that Bach iced out. Anyway, Tulang didn't read. There are bad actors everywhere, but in this case it was a white woman.

A (22:41)

And even on state regime media, which calls itself Fox. Leslie Marshall, I think did an excellent breakdown. Play this clip.

G (22:48)

Well, I looked at what he could be doing and I looked at what he is doing. One of the things that ties his hands is this very legislature that is trying to get him to resign. Interesting. They're not asking for a recall. So when they say the people of Minnesota don't want him, we'll put it to a recall and let the people of Minnesota decide. Todd, love you Google if you Google actually local Minnesota news outlets have been reporting on this for years. Speaking of years, during the Biden administration there were 59 people convicted so far. The ringleader is not Somalian. She's a white woman named Amy Block. She was found guilty on all seven counts that were brought against her. So there are people that are already in prison. And remember, some of these are not DHS or federal related facilities. Some of these facilities were closed down for other reasons, not even fraud. But back to your question about Tim Walls. He asked the legislator legislature in his state to give him more authority so that he could do more. And they said no. 1, 2, he also has closed a number of these centers already and not just a fraud. They were investigating them for everything else. One, for example, on that video that went out, not the one from years ago, the one just recently, they were already closed because they were a bad daycare center. There was no fraud. They were just not doing a good job of daycare. He hired outside firms to audit the payments to these organizations. He shut down the housing stabilization entirely, that department entirely. He has hired an overseer for this specifically. And he just, he continues to try and get more, you know, and I don't think, honestly I don't think he should resign. I think he's going to resign, but I do think it's political. And Republicans say it's not. One, it's Republicans asking for him to resign and two, he's less than a year from reelection and this is definitely going to put a ding in a chink in his armor as he runs.

B (24:36)

Yeah, rightfully.

A (24:37)

Now finally you have James Comer. JAMES Comer, HOUSE Oversight and I think he really gives away the game here of what's going on. And he says in this clip I'm about to show you, he goes, look, people hate paying taxes. People are struggling right now. People struggle to buy Christmas presents. People have it Rough in the United States right now. But it seems the Somalis are taking your money and they're the reason why you're suffering. So what this is all basically doing is to distract from the Epstein files. Pick a group. They pick the Somalis. Marginalized immigrant population, relatively vulnerable population in Minnesota, tight knit community. Blame the Somalis in general because a small group of people engaged in fraudulent conduct for which there were prosecutions taking place under former President Biden. And this was all well known. Nick Shirley didn't uncover anything new like this. All this stuff is, is out there. And then blame the, the fact that, you know, hey Maga, you want to know why you're suffering? You want to know why you can't afford things, why you can't afford a home, why your life isn't good, why all of Donald Trump's promises haven't come true? It's the Somali's fault. Blame the Somalis. So then they become the scapegoat for everything. It is a thing that's used by authoritarians since the beginning of time. Like, I mean, this is, this is the authoritarian playbook. Divide the people, blame a marginalized group. And while the billionaires plunder and just convince people that those are the bad guys, here's what James Comer says. I do expect him to show up. This, this is the biggest story in America right now. The mainstream media is finally starting to cover it. They thought it would just be a 24 or 48 hour news cycle, but this is what the American people are interested in. They're outraged. Everyone works hard, they pay taxes. Everyone hates to pay taxes. We're struggling through paying for Christmas presents and making ends meet at the, at the end of the year. And then you see with your own eyes the massive amounts of fraud taking place in Minnesota. And most Americans have enough common sense to know this is probably happening in other states. Well, there you have it, folks. I hope this was comprehensive and explained everything to you. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million. Thanks for watching. Love this video. Support independent media and unlock exclusive content, ad free videos and custom emojis. By becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel today. You can also gift memberships to others. Let's keep growing together. The new year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. Lifelock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New year's goals with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com podcast terms apply.