Authorities on Tuesday raided nearly two dozen facilities in Minnesota, as federal officials continue to probe allegations that the state was defrauded of billions in taxpayer dollars.
Twenty-two federal search warrants were executed by the FBI and other agencies on Tuesday morning, according to the Justice Department. The locations in Minneapolis were largely Somali-linked businesses, according to Fox News, including the city’s Quality Learning Center, which infamously misspelled “Learning” as “Learing” on its signage.
“Today, the FBI, with federal, state, and local law enforcement, is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation,” a DOJ spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
The Department of Homeland Security said its investigations unit was also involved in carrying out the raid “in cooperation with our law enforcement partners.” DHS said it “executed criminal search warrants in Minneapolis relating to the rampant fraud of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars,” sparking praise from Republicans such as Vice President JD Vance and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN).
“The American people deserve to know how their taxpayer money was abused,” DHS wrote in a post to X. “No stone will be left unturned.”
The development comes after concerns last fall about sweeping fraud schemes targeting federal and state welfare programs in Minnesota prompted government investigations and heightened federal scrutiny into similar suspected fraud operations across the country. Federal prosecutors have said that in Minnesota, Medicaid fraud alone likely costs taxpayers $9 billion.
Some of the suspected fraud involved childcare centers, such as the Quality Learning Center, and other welfare programs that received federal and state funding. YouTuber Nick Shirley documented videos at many publicly funded locations that appeared to be closed or fronts for other businesses, leading to his appearance as a key witness at a congressional hearing on the matter in January.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited the state the same month, calling it “ground zero for what may be one of the most egregious welfare scams in our nation’s history to date.”
SOMALI FUGITIVE FLEEING MINNESOTA FRAUD CHARGES IS AN ILHAN OMAR DONOR
On Tuesday, Vance, who chairs the White House fraud task force, praised the latest raids in Minneapolis.
“The task force and the DOJ will be relentless in exposing these fraudsters wherever they may be hiding,” he said.