The manager of a daycare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is fighting allegations of fraud as the investigation into the issue intensifies and the Somali community faces scrutiny.
The Quality Learning Center was featured in a video by citizen journalist Nick Shirley who found its doors locked, no cars in the parking lot, and no children in sight during his recent visit, KARE 11 reported Monday.
Ibrahim Ali is the facility manager, and he told the outlet it serves up to 80 children and has 25 employees.
He claimed, “There’s no fraud going on whatsoever,” and said the sign, which is misspelled to read “Quality Learing Center,” was a mistake by a graphic designer.
When pressed about Shirley’s video, Ali appeared to get defensive, asking, “Are you trying to record that we’re doing fraud, or are you trying to put the Somali name and fraud in the same sentence?”
After Shirley posted his viral video, the daycare was reportedly full of children on Monday, the New York Post reported.
One resident told the outlet, “We’ve never seen kids go in there until today. That parking lot is empty all the time, and I was under the impression that place is permanently closed.”
When speaking with the Post, Ali claimed Shirley visited the site before opening hours and also said there were 16 children inside the building on Monday afternoon.
The outlet also spoke to a woman opening the facility around 2:00 p.m. who said, “We don’t have fraud. That’s a lie. I don’t want to talk to you. I want to talk to my lawyer.”
Shirley has received tons of attention for his video exposing the alleged fraud in Minnesota, according to Breitbart News.
In the video he posted on Friday, Shirley said, “Here is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet. We uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day. Like it and share it around like wildfire! Its time to hold these corrupt politicians and fraudsters accountable We ALL work way too hard and pay too much in taxes for this to be happening, the fraud must be stopped.”
Meanwhile, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said agents from the DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations are investigating childcare and “other rampant fraud” in Minneapolis, Breitbart News reported Monday.
In a statement Monday, Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown addressed the fraud allegations.
“While we have questions about some of the methods that were used in the video, we do take the concerns that the video raises about fraud very seriously,” she said, per the KARE article.
Officials from Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) office claimed he has “worked for years” to stop fraud after Shirley’s video drew tons of attention and concern from taxpaying citizens.
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