DHS Agents Deployed to Minnesota Fraud Sites

As we head into the final days of the year, one story refuses to fade from the headlines, and frankly, it shouldn’t.

Federal agents have been dispatched to Minnesota amid the billion-dollar fraud scandals involving medical offices and childcare facilities that have been happening right under Governor Tim Walz’s nose. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is now sending federal agents to more than 30 sites in Minneapolis as the American people are demanding to see those involved held fully accountable.

As reported:

Federal Homeland Security officials were conducting a fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

The action comes after years of investigation that began with the $300 million scheme at the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants are Somali Americans, they said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said then that fraud will not be tolerated and that his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”

This week, both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed they are deploying agents to investigate multiple sites across Minnesota connected to what has already been described by federal prosecutors as “industrial scale fraud.”

Estimates suggest that as much as $9 billion in taxpayer funds may have been stolen or fraudulently billed through a web of programs that were supposed to help vulnerable communities.

Much of the renewed attention comes from independent reporting that exploded online over the Christmas holiday. A YouTube journalist documented visits to multiple daycare centers receiving large sums of government money, yet they mysteriously appeared to be empty, inactive, or barely operational. In one now-viral moment, a daycare facility with a sign identifying it as “Quality Learing Center” – as opposed to “learning” – had no children present at all, despite billing for services.

Even Vice President J.D. Vance commented that YouTube content creator Nick Shirley “has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 @pulitzercenter prizes.”

To be clear, allegations alone are not convictions. Not every daycare, nonprofit, or organization receiving funds is guilty of wrongdoing. That distinction matters, and due process matters. But when federal agencies decide the claims are serious enough to warrant boots on the ground, it signals this can’t simply be dismissed as internet speculation.

What makes this situation especially troubling is that it’s not happening in a vacuum. Minnesota has already been under scrutiny for fraud tied to COVID-era relief programs, including meal distribution schemes that federal prosecutors say were abused on a staggering scale. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson put it bluntly before Christmas, stating that the “magnitude” of fraud in Minnesota “cannot be overstated,” and it is “calling into question everything we know about our state.”

And now investigators are reportedly looking at whether similar patterns existed in childcare programs.

The response from state leadership has raised additional questions. Rather than forcefully disputing the allegations, Governor Walz almost predictably tried to pass the buck and merely stated that efforts have been made to combat fraud and suggested the legislature failed to grant enough authority. That explanation may satisfy political talking points, but it won’t satisfy taxpayers who want to know how billions of dollars slipped through the cracks.

This story also exposes a deeper issue: oversight. For years, Americans have been told certain programs are off limits to scrutiny because they are humanitarian in nature. But asking where the money goes isn’t cruelty – it’s responsibility. Whether you support or oppose government-funded childcare, food assistance, or social services, everyone should agree on one thing: The money should actually reach the people it’s meant to help. It’s not to be siphoned off to a foreign country to be used for who knows what.

Instead, we’re seeing allegations of shell organizations, nonexistent services, and after-the-fact scrambling to appear legitimate after attention shifts. That’s corruption. And it’s not just a Minnesota problem. If billions can disappear in one state, it raises a fair question: Where else is this happening? Red states, blue states – doesn’t matter. No one should be immune to audits, transparency, and accountability – no matter what excuses or accusations they try to toss back.

This story isn’t going away. Nor should it.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion of the events unfolding in Minnesota in the way of this disturbing scandal. We were also joined by the head of ACLJ Jerusalem, ACLJ Senior Counsel Jeff Ballabon, to discuss the latest claim by Iran that they are in a “full-scale war” with the United States as well as Europe and Israel.

Watch the full broadcast below: