Jonah Kaplan, investigative journalist for the Minneapolis CBS News affiliate, reported that the network conducted its own analysis of “nearly a dozen day care centers” mentioned in Nick Shirley’s viral video and found no evidence of fraud. CBS News conducted its own analysis of nearly a dozen day care centers mentioned by Shirley: all but two have active licenses, according to state records, and all active locations were visited by state regulators within the last six months. CBS News’ review also found dozens of citations related to safety, cleanliness, equipment, and staff training, among other violations, but there was no recorded evidence of fraud.

JONAH KAPLAN, CBS NEWS: According to federal prosecutors, it was really during COVID that fraudsters set up these fake restaurants or sham businesses and health clinics that would provide things like meals to school children or behavioral health services or housing to people with addiction. And because during COVID you didn’t have the same checks and balances, you had social distancing, you couldn’t have the site visits, you couldn’t have the in-person inspections, well the fraudsters got away with it all and provided the receipts and collected boatloads of cash from us, the taxpayers. More than 90 people have been charged in the schemes, mostly Somalis, and more than 60 people have been convicted. Now you have this viral video getting traction online, it’s from influencer Nick Shirley and he visited several daycares, Somali-owned daycares in the Twin Cities and basically accused them of doing the same thing, running these sham operations where kids didn’t show up but still billed the federal government and collected millions of dollars in Medicaid funds. We visited those sites too, as did state inspectors many times over the last six months, and we found the facts on the ground tell a different story. Those daycares, many of them were written up for safety violations, things like maybe busted equipment or staff training issues, but that’s not the same as being fraudulent, so it’s important to put all of this into context. Granted, fraud is indisputably an issue in Minnesota and next year it’s going to turn up the heat continuously on state officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who’s running for re-election, and there are 14 programs, Medicaid funded programs, that are currently under investigation by state and federal government, but child care is not one of them. Again, this is something we’re going to keep following well into next year.

RealClearPolitics Videos