Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
The 89% of fraud is committed by Somalis stat is misleading. 89% of the people convicted in a specific fraud scandal, the Feeding Our Future case, were of Somali descent. The ring leader was a white woman. So, this stat just refers to the percentage of convictions in one large fraud case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rarnyqVzKLk
Because states run programs like Medicaid, but the federal government pays for over half of it, states have the incentive to come up with new programs and less incentive to properly police Medicaid spending.
“state and federal prosecutors have been trying to bust fraudulent preschools and other Medicaid fraud schemes in Minnesota for more than a decade. And yet, there are always more. Law enforcement is doing its best, but the problem seems to be that the state’s welfare bureaucracy is doing a terrible job of stopping the scammers in the first place.
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This is not just a problem in Minnesota either. Medicaid fraud is remarkably common. The federal departments of Justice and Health and Human Services run a joint program to catch fraudsters, and in 2024 alone it accounted for 1,151 convictions that recovered almost $1.4 billion.
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Anyone who wants to stop Medicaid fraud should focus less on scoring partisan political points or demonizing immigrants and more on the boring work of fixing federal policy.
Telling states to pay for a larger share of their own Medicaid spending seems like an obvious step in the right direction. It would give state officials—from governors like Walz all the way down to the lowest-ranking bureaucrat—a stronger incentive to prevent waste and fraud in the first place. It would reduce the burden placed on out-of-state taxpayers when states with lax enforcement allow fraud like this to occur.”
https://reason.com/2025/12/30/the-minnesota-welfare-fraud-story-is-really-about-a-broken-medicaid-bureaucracy/
“Nick Shirley’s Credibility GONE In Under 10 Minutes – Minnesota Somali” Fraud Video Exposed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKx_GDdh4sM
“The fraud, while egregious, does not justify revoking legal protections for Somali immigrants: While the lion’s share of this monumental theft was likely perpetrated by people of Somali descent, the vast majority of this community had nothing to do it.”
https://reason.com/2025/12/12/the-real-villain-in-minnesotas-1-5-billion-fraud-scandal-isnt-somalis-its-the-feds/
There was real fraud in Minnesota with a lot of it by Somalis, but Shirley’s “investigation” falsely accused day care centers of being fake without proper evidence, resulting in vandalism and threats to apparently innocent people.
He went to these places with a group of men, some of them wearing masks. His group didn’t look like a parent looking to sign up a child, but a group of thugs.
Lots of people got duped by this incompetent investigation, including Elon Musk and JD Vance who shared the video to their huge audiences. And, the administration began withholding all childcare funding to Minnesota.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYApdNdBIvg
“The Minnesota Star Tribune also visited all 10 facilities, and found children inside four of them when invited inside. Six other facilities were either closed or employees did not open their doors.
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Osman said the doors are always locked for safety, and the staff was on high alert following the president’s threats to deport Somali people and escalation of federal immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities.
He said Shirley’s unannounced drop-in was “not intended to be a sincere approach.””
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Director Ahmed Hasan said they’ve had similar visits from other “content creators,” but the others didn’t have enough followers to create the kind of chaos that Shirley did.
Hasan said Shirley, a man identified as “David” and a third man came to the front door while five more men waited in a van and car, some of them wearing masks.
Hasan said there were children inside, but they weren’t about to let strangers inside, given the recent immigration crackdown. They thought the masked men in the vehicles might be ICE agents.
Hasan said Shirley left soon after Hasan arrived, entering through a back door.
On Dec. 30, Hasan invited the Star Tribune and other media outlets into the facility, where about 30 children of varying ages were visible.
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A woman from a neighboring home health care agency showed the Star Tribune video footage of children coming and going on Dec. 16.
Kevin Brown, who lives two blocks away and owns a business next door to ABC Learning Center, said he often sees kids at the center.
He saw Shirley’s video and came over to the daycare Dec. 30 when he saw TV cameras there.
“I don’t like the idea of people coming from out of town, coming into our neighborhood and making assumptions without talking to people and getting the facts,” he said. “That’s the definition of fake news.”
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Part-owner Umi Hassan said she lived here right after 9/11 and didn’t feel as marginalized and fearful as she does today. She’s unable to sleep at night and carries her passport everywhere.
Tears running down her face, she asked, “What else can I do to be an American?””
https://www.startribune.com/day-care-fraud-minnesota-video/601554760
Shirley posted videos of childcare centers than he claimed showed they were fraudulent because no one answered when he visited them, but many of them were active daycares, which don’t answer the doors to groups of men for security concerns. Both government investigations and real reporters who followed up on Shirley’s shoddy work found the daycare centers to be active centers taking care of kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=283r6-lUnP4
Ghost job posting is when companies post fake jobs for information, fraudulently posting a non-existent job where people who need work waste time applying for a fake job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OPU6byF8e4
Medicare Advantage allows insurance companies to rip off the taxpayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWXP9dUKdCw
Somalis in Minnesota were involved in fraudulent welfare schemes that stole a buttload of money from the U.S. government. Minnesota state officials were getting wind of the crimes, but failed to act in part because they feared being called racist in the post-George Floyd environment. Instead of seriously thinking about how to crack down on such schemes, Trump responded by calling all Somalis trash and saying he doesn’t want any Somalis in the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nWswQVRDx0