FBI raids Minnesota childcare centers in crackdown on fraud

The FBI raided nearly two dozen childcare centers in Minnesota on Tuesday as part of a larger investigation into fraud schemes in the Twin Cities area.

Officials said law enforcement teams executed 22 search warrants at childcare and daycare centers throughout Minneapolis beginning early Tuesday.

“Today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Childcare fraud in the state has frequently been connected to Minnesota’s Somali community, which came into focus last year following a video report from independent journalist Nick Shirley.

Mr. Shirley’s report showed desolate-looking buildings listed as childcare centers, often with no children on the premises.

Many of the businesses — including one that misspelled its name as Quality Learing Center — received state funding to remain up and running.

The expose invited scrutiny against Gov. Tim Walz at the time, but the Democratic executive said his administration sniffed out the targets ahead of Tuesday’s operation. 

“Today’s raids by state and federal law enforcement happened because our state agencies caught irregular behavior and reported it,” Mr. Walz wrote on X. “That’s how the system is supposed to work, and our agencies will keep at it as long as there are fraudsters around to put behind bars.”

Advertisement Advertisement

He then pivoted to jabbing the White House, saying, “Now let’s work on a joint investigation into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good — instead of cherry-picking when we seek justice and when we turn a blind eye.”

But FBI Director Kash Patel swatted the governor for piggybacking on an effort he said was initiated at the federal level.

“Come again? This FBI and DOJ drafted and executed every search warrant today,” the director wrote in response. “But go ahead and take credit for our work while we smoke out the fraud plaguing Minnesota under your governorship.”

President Trump said in February’s State of the Union address that he would drop the hammer on fraudsters after the issue came to a head in the North Star State.

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have already filed charges against people conning the state’s housing programs and services meant to assist families with autistic children.

Advertisement Advertisement

In September, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota accused Asha Farhan Hassan of defrauding the state of at least $14 million by having Somali parents register their children for the program after getting a fake autism diagnosis.

Ms. Hassan paid the parents kickbacks ranging from $300 to $1,500 per month for each “autistic” child they signed up for the program, prosecutors said.

Officials also charged several people with defrauding Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Service program.

The program is designed to help disabled people and drug addicts find and keep homes, but prosecutors said the suspects used the cash to buy luxury cars and purchase overseas property.

Advertisement Advertisement

Prosecutors said at least six of the suspects are of Somali descent.

A report by the City Journal said many of the Somalis connected to the separate fraud schemes sent money as remittances to their homeland.

Some of that money was later given to the Islamist terror group Al-Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.