Walz Administration Says It ‘Strengthened Oversight’ After Viral Documentary Highlights Fraud Claims

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office said on Sunday it launched new investigations in response to a viral video further documenting evidence of fraud in the state.

A new documentary produced by independent journalist Nick Shirley highlights visits to more than 20 licensed childcare and healthcare providers participating in state-funded assistance programs that appeared to be non-operational during the visits. Walz’s office responded to the video in a statement provided to FOX News, claiming his administration has “strengthened oversight,” in response to the documented fraud schemes.

“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 on Sunday night. “He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.”

Walz’s office added that the administration had “hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.”

In one viral moment, Shirley goes to a building displaying a misspelled sign reading “Quality Learing [sic] Center.”

“Quality Learning Center is a daycare, yet they spelled ‘Learning’ wrong and they said ‘Learing.’ This daycare alone in 1025 has received $1.9 million from the government,” Shirley says of the facility. “The strange thing about these childcare centers is there’s no one here right now. It’s midday on a weekday. If you were to try to go inside, it’s completely closed and the windows are all blacked out. No one’s working midday. Children should be in here, and this place is licensed for 99 children.”

“My office, here in Minneapolis, I’m sort of in the heart of all of this fraud. And I would see these childcare centers. I said, well, are there any kids there? It’s middle of the day, and all I see are a couple of guys standing out front smoking,” Shirley’s collaborator says in the documentary. “And then I go by another daycare, and I’d see the same thing. I said, Well, where do these kids play? And so I started to go online and look. I said, this place is licensed for 80 children. They had zero children every time I went by there. They never had a single child there.”

Walz’s administration recently found itself plagued by allegations of fraud involving the Somali population in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the largest concentration of Somali-Americans in the country. Federal prosecutors said earlier in December that over the past seven years fraudsters in Minnesota may have stolen some $9 billion in federal funds supporting programs in the state.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel responded to Shirley’s viral documentary, noting the Bureau was “aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota,” and that the institution had “surged personnel and investigative resources” in response to fraud in the state.

“To date, the FBI dismantled a $250 million fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during COVID. The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies, and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feeding Our Future network,” Patel said on X Sunday. “The FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg. We will continue to follow the money and protect children, and this investigation very much remains ongoing.”