Inside The Coordinated Minnesota Fraud Crackdown Effort By The Trump Admin: ‘We Will Not Stop’

A viral video from independent journalist Nick Shirley — which exposed just a portion of the rampant fraud in daycare centers in Minnesota — turned national attention onto potentially fraudulent activity in that state and beyond.

The issues plaguing the North Star State have been on the radar of the federal government for some time, and the Trump administration has publicly discussed efforts made by different agencies to rein in possible fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is halting federal taxpayer dollars for “child care payments” to the state, as the Department of Homeland Security conducted operations at locations where they sought to investigate potential fraud.

“Our agents are conducting a massive operation to identify, arrest, and remove criminals who are defrauding the American people at daycares, healthcare facilities, and other suspected sites,” DHS posted to X on Monday. “We will not stop until we’ve rooted out this rampant fraud plaguing Minnesota.”

Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, told The Daily Wire that the administration is “all working together” to take on the issue, noting the work of United States Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen and his office. Ninety-eight people have already been charged by the DOJ for fraud in the state, and 60 people have been found guilty already.

“85 of them are Somali descent,” Dhillon noted about the cases. “So it’s overwhelmingly a Somali problem so far.”

In another fraud scheme centered on the Somali community, Feeding Our Future set up a fake child meals charity, bilking the public to the tune of $250 million during the pandemic — and the ringleaders of that scam have already been ordered to pay back millions for their crimes.

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“A new one that hasn’t gotten a lot of coverage is the autism treatment, Medicaid schemes, which is about $200 million, including kickbacks paid to parents and the Somali community to have their children falsely diagnosed as autistic and to bring them into these autism clinics where no services are really performed,” Dhillon said. “They look like daycares and they bill Minnesota for one-on-one behavior health therapy. But that was not needed. These people did not have autism apparently.”

Earlier this month, the DOJ announced six people were charged, and one pleaded guilty to autism fraud schemes in Minnesota. Dhillon noted that the DOJ is looking at over a dozen programs for “potential fraud.” The DOJ also charged eight people with wire fraud with Housing Stability Services Program funds in September.

“Today we announce the first wave of charges in a massive fraud in Minnesota’s housing stabilization program,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said in a statement at the time. “I want to be clear on the scope of the crisis. What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need. It feels never ending. I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away. The fraud must be stopped.”

On the flip side, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who has already faced a number of calls to resign in the wake of the fraud scandals in his state, has used the situation to take aim at President Donald Trump.

“This is Trump’s long game. We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue – but this has been his plan all along. He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz posted to X in response to HHS’ announcement on child care.

In a separate post, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee said that, “While Minnesota has been combating fraud, the President has been letting fraudsters out of jail.”

“Trump’s using an issue he doesn’t give a damn about as an excuse to hurt working Minnesotans,” he added.

Beyond the state’s Executive Branch, Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison are now being asked to testify before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee, Fox News reported.