After independent journalist Nick Shirley posted a viral video on Friday showing a Minnesota daycare center with a banner reading “Quality Learing Center” empty, the center appeared active on Monday, the New York Post reported.
Photos by LP Media for the Post showed adults and children walking into the daycare center, along with a packed parking lot. A local resident told the outlet that the activity and surge of children on Monday was “highly unusual” for the daycare center.
“We’ve never seen kids go in there until today,” the resident told the Post. “That parking lot is empty all the time, and I was under the impression that place is permanently closed.”
The daycare center states its hours are 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., according to the Post. Ibrahim Ali, the owner’s son who asserted he was the center’s manager, told the outlet that Shirley arrived before its operating hours.
“Do you go to a coffee shop at 11 p.m. and say, ‘Hey, they’re not working’?” Ali asked the outlet.
He also said a graphic designer was responsible for the misspelled banner, which would “be fixed,” and that roughly 16 children were present on Monday afternoon.
Furthermore, a woman opening the center on Monday at 2 p.m. refuted Shirley’s allegations, according to the NYP, saying, “We don’t have fraud. That’s a lie.”
A staffer at the center also snapped at an NYP reporter on Monday.
“What’s your response to the allegations? Is there fraud going on here?” the reporter asked.
“Get the fuck out of here,” the employee said, refusing to answer any questions.
Resurfaced surveillance footage from 2015 allegedly shows parents of students arriving at daycare centers, only to leave minutes later with their children.
Shirley reported in his video that the center seemed inactive despite being licensed to care for 99 children. He said that the center obtained $1.9 million in 2025 and $4 million in total from Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP).
Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown on Monday responded to Shirley’s video, saying, “There have been ongoing investigations with several of those centers” and “None of those investigations uncovered findings of fraud,” according to KARE 11.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson asserted on Dec. 18 that suspected fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid program could exceed $9 billion. Shirley wrote in his viral X post that his team had “uncovered over $110,000,000” of fraud in just a single day.
The journalist found that multiple supposed Minnesota Somali-run daycare centers had no children present.
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office on Sunday defended the governor’s record in a statement to Fox News following Shirley’s video.
“The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action,” Walz’s office told Fox News. “He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.”
FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in a Sunday X post that his agency had “surged personnel and investigative resources” in response to Minnesota fraud.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
