The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that they have charged several people in connection to fraud in Minnesota after content creator and independent journalist Nick Shirley exposed corruption in the state in a series of videos. Attorney General Pam Bondi gave a shoutout to Shirley in an X post.
“@NickShirleyyy’s work has helped show Americans the scale of fraud in Tim Walz’s Minnesota,” Bondi wrote. “@TheJusticeDept has been investigating this for months. So far, we have charged 98 individuals – 85 of Somali descent – and more than 60 have been found guilty in court.”
“We have more prosecutions coming…BUCKLE UP, LAWMAKERS!” she added.
The U.S. Department of Justice shared Bondi’s post, writing, “We have charged 98 individuals in relation to fraud in Minnesota. More than 60 have pled guilty or been convicted. More to come.”
What did Nick Shirley expose?
Shirley came under the spotlight after alleging that there is a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota’s daycare system. He claimed that corruption is rampant in Minnesota, specifically exposing a Somali-run daycare fraud. He shared various videos on social media to expose fraudulent practices in the state.
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One of Shirley’s videos, captioned “Example of the Billions $$ of fraud taking place in Minnesota,” shows him standing in front of the daycare and talking to a local resident about the functioning and operations of the organization. “This is one of the hundreds of “daycares” receiving millions of dollars from the government, this daycare (that can’t even spell learning right) received $1,900,000 in tax exempt funding from CCAP,” he alleged, adding that this was only one case among the thousands of fraudulent businesses operating in the state.
Another one of Shirley’s videos has a text overlay that reads, “Confronting a $1.26 Million fraudulent Somali Daycare Center in Minnesota’. The video is captioned, “ANOTHER Minnesota fraudulent DayCare center receiving $1.26 million in CCAP funding (tax exempt money), these day cares all receive money from the government and then block out all windows and lock there doors and won’t even give you the option to enroll your child. Then when they don’t want you to understand what they are saying they speak in Somalian. I just wanted daycare for my “son” Joey!”
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Shirley also called out Tim Walz in his posts, saying in one of them, “Tim Walz is governor and knew about the fraud but never reported it, can you imagine if he was the VP right now??”
In another post, he asked, “The big question is will Tim Walz be held accountable?”
Shirley alleged that there are “hundreds of daycares operating fraudulently across the state,” adding, “I have more to show you guys in the coming days.”