- - Minnesota daycare with $4M in taxpayer funding has no kids, misspelled sign in viral report exposing alleged fraud. FBI responds to outrage

Victoria VesovskiDecember 29, 2025 at 11:05 PM

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Nick Shirley

On a typical weekday, child-care centers are anything but quiet, as they are oftentimes filled with crying toddlers, sing-along storytime and constant motion. That’s why a newly viral 42-minute video circulating on X is raising eyebrows.

In the video, influencer Nick Shirley alleges that millions in state and federal child-care funds have been paid to facilities that appear inactive or unoccupied (1). Shirley estimates the funding at more than $110 million and, alongside state lawmakers, is calling on Tim Walz to explain a recent report involving an allegedly fake daycare that reportedly received $4 million in public funds (2).

The claims land amid rising child-care costs in Minnesota, where center-based care averages roughly $20,000 a year for an infant and more than $15,000 for a four-year-old, according to child-care marketplace Tootris (3).

One facility, the “Quality Learing Center (4),” a name that caught Shirley’s attention because of the misspelling of “learning,” was licensed to serve nearly 100 children but appeared unoccupied when his team visited. The center allegedly received $1.9 million through Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program in 2025, in addition to funding from prior years.

“There’s no one here,” Shirley says in the video. “This is a prime example of the billions of dollars in fraud happening right now in Minnesota.”

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Walz administration pushes back

Republican leaders were quick to seize on the allegations. GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer criticized the governor on social media, questioning how money is being spent.

"4 million dollars of hard earned tax dollars going to and an education center that can’t even spell learning correctly," Emmer wrote on X (5).

According to DHS records, the same facility accumulated 95 violations between 2019 and 2023 (6). Those infractions reportedly included “failure to keep hazardous items away from children” and “no records for 16 children.”

In a statement to Fox News (7), a spokesperson from Gov.Walz’s office said the administration has spent years strengthening oversight and combating fraud, including expanding enforcement authority and launching investigations into the facilities referenced in the video. One of those facilities has since closed.

Earlier in December, Walz moved to formalize those efforts (8), as he appointed Tim O’Malley as director of Program Integrity, a new role within Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension focused on preventing fraud across state programs. The administration also announced it would work with third-party experts at WayPoint to support the Office of the Inspector General Coordinating Council, a statewide fraud-prevention initiative.

"Minnesota's long-standing high standards of integrity of public funds go hand in hand with a culture of generosity,” Walz said. “You can't have one without the other. Any amount of fraud is too much.”

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FBI ramps up investigations

In response, federal authorities have also increased their involvement in the matter, as FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau has increased staffing and investigative resources in Minnesota (9).

The heightened scrutiny follows Minnesota’s largest public-benefits fraud case to date — the Feeding Our Future scandal — in which federal prosecutors alleged that more than $250 million in pandemic-era child-nutrition funds were fraudulently claimed through a network of nonprofit organizations. Many of the defendants charged in that case are Somali or Somali American, according to federal court records (10).

Nationally, the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates the federal government may lose between $231 billion and $521 billion each year to improper payments, including fraud, waste and abuse (11).

The prominence of Somali and Somali American defendants in high-profile fraud cases has also shaped the political response. President Donald Trump has seized on the investigations, labeling Minnesota as a hub for fraud and announcing plans to end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in the state.

Immigrant-advocacy groups have pushed back on that framing, warning that broad rhetoric risks stigmatizing entire communities rather than isolating alleged criminal activity. For now, the investigations remain ongoing. Whether they result in prosecutions, policy changes or tighter oversight could shape how Minnesota safeguards public dollars moving forward.

As Shirley put it, "Fraud is fraud, and we work too hard to be paying taxes and enabling fraud to be happening."

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Article sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.

@nickshirleyy (1); Komo News (2); Tootris (3); Yahoo (4); @tomemmer (5); KSTP (6); Fox News (7); Inforum (8); Reuters (9); KRCG (10); U.S. Government Accountability Office (11)

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Money”