YouTuber’s viral ‘Somali day care’ video spurs sweeping federal fraud probe in Minnesota as Walz defends oversight of $18 billion
FBI Director Kash Patel and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem are looking closely at Minnesota after an independent journalist’s 40-minute video raised many views—and questions.
A viral video alleging fraud at several Minnesota daycare centers has triggered intensified federal and state scrutiny of how public money is spent. At the same time, officials stress that the claims remain unproven and under active investigation.
The clash between online allegations and official audits has put Governor Tim Walz’s administration and the state’s oversight systems under a national spotlight. It comes against the backdrop of a federal prosecutor’s allegation earlier in December that half or more of approximately $18 billion in federal funds allocated to Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Authorities stress that the daycare sites in Shirley’s footage are now part of an expanded investigative map. Still, they have not publicly alleged a specific dollar figure of confirmed fraud tied to those particular centers.
Conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a roughly 40‑minute video late last week, documenting visits to nearly a dozen daycare centers in Minnesota that appear largely empty or inactive despite, as Shirley claims, receiving public funds. The video, shared on YouTube and X, has amassed nearly 2 million direct views in three days, as well as tens of millions of impressions across platforms, and has rapidly circulated under hashtags referencing “daycare fraud” and “Somali” centers.
In his narration and social media posts, Shirley alleges that some centers “receive millions of dollars in taxpayer money” while not providing real childcare services, framing the situation as part of a broader fraud problem tied to facilities described as Somali‑run. State and federal authorities have not confirmed that the centers in his video engaged in criminal fraud. Still, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have said they are surging resources into Minnesota to investigate suspected fraud involving social service and daycare programs. These efforts predate the video’s release, with a federal jury finding in March 2025 that Minnesota restaurant owners had committed $250 million in fraud by claiming to provide meals to children but instead funding their own lifestyles.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described current operations in Minnesota as a “massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud,” with several media outlets quoting her as saying that agents were “going door to door at suspected fraud sites” featured in the viral footage, although that social media post appears to have since been deleted.