U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Monday that the Department of Justice has already arrested and charged 98 individuals with fraud in Minnesota, 85 of whom are of Somali descent.
What’s more, the attorney general said, there are further prosecutions coming.
The announcement came after a series of videos from YouTuber Nick Shirley that indicated fraud in the Somali community went beyond just the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, in which a Minneapolis-based nonprofit allegedly misappropriated massive sums of money meant to feed at-risk families.
Shirley’s video, released late last week, has gotten the federal government’s attention.
“[Nick Shirley’s] work has helped show Americans the scale of fraud in Tim Walz’s Minnesota,” Bondi said in an X statement late Monday.
“@TheJusticeDepartment has been investigating this for months. So far, we have charged 98 individuals — 85 of Somali descent — and more than 60 have been found guilty in court,” she continued.
“We have more prosecutions coming… BUCKLE UP, LAWMAKERS!”
MINNESOTA FRAUD: @NickShirleyyy’s work has helped show Americans the scale of fraud in Tim Walz’s Minnesota. @TheJusticeDept has been investigating this for months. So far, we have charged 98 individuals – 85 of Somali descent – and more than 60 have been found guilty in…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 29, 2025
Bondi went on to describe several of the cases they’d already prosecuted, including the Feeding Our Future scheme and a connected juror bribery case — a situation which, as Bondi noted, was “not unlike what you would see in the corrupt Somali judicial system.”
Scam 1: FEEDING OUR FUTURE — THE LARGEST COVID-19 FRAUD CASE CHARGED IN THE COUNTRY
– Claimed to serve children millions of free meals during COVID—few, if any, were ever fed
– Submitted fake invoices and fake rosters of kids purportedly receiving meals
– 78 defendants charged…— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 29, 2025
And just last month, we sentenced Abdimijad Mohamed Nur — another key player in the Feeding Our Future scheme — to 10 years in federal prison and ordered him to pay millions in restitution
– And the crimes in this case don’t end here . . . ⬇️https://t.co/xJgkM0MZWK
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 29, 2025
Scam 2: JUROR BRIBERY (continued)
According to the defendants, “[T]he government kept attacking Somali culture . . . [and] was very racist.”
– This claim is ludicrous: the government was fighting the unprecedented level of fraud being committedhttps://t.co/8SRiNFZu2p— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 29, 2025
In addition to the Feeding Our Future scam, there were also several instances of Medicaid fraud, including one involving care that was supposed to go to autistic children.
In September, a media release from the Department of Justice alleged 28-year-old Asha Farhan Hassan had received almost $500,000 for her role in a $14 million autism fraud case.
“As set forth in the information, Hassan and others devised and carried out a scheme to defraud the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (‘EIDBI’) benefit, a publicly funded Minnesota Health Care Program that offers medically necessary services to people under the age of 21 with autism spectrum disorder (‘ASD’). According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services (‘DHS’) website, the purpose of the EIDBI program is ‘to provide medically necessary, early and intensive intervention for people with ASD and related conditions,’” the release read.
“From November 2019 through December 2024, Asha Hassan and others devised and carried out a scheme to defraud the EIDBI autism services program. Hassan formed and registered Smart Therapy LLC with the Minnesota Secretary of State in November 2019. Hassan listed herself as the sole owner of Smart Therapy. In reality, other individuals also had ownership stakes in Smart Therapy but were not listed on DHS documents, including because one of the owners previously owned an adult daycare and was excluded by DHS for three years due to her conduct running the adult daycare center. Shortly after forming the company, Hassan enrolled Smart Therapy as a provider agency in the EIDBI program. As discussed below, Hassan also enrolled Smart Therapy in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future,” it continued.
“Smart Therapy purported to be providing necessary one-on-one ABA therapy to children with autism. In fact, Smart Therapy employed unqualified individuals as ‘behavioral technicians.’ These behavioral technicians were often 18- or 19-year-old relatives with no formal education beyond high school and no training or certifications related to the treatment of autism.”
Scam 4: MEDICAID FRAUD
-Fraudsters identified Minnesota’s Medication coverage program for Housing Stabilization Services – a program meant to help people with disabilities, senior citizens, and people with mental illnesses
-Then, they started sham LLCs and began signing up drug…— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 29, 2025
The case is reminiscent of the so-called “learning centers” profiled in Shirley’s viral video, one of which is now infamous for misspelling the word “learning” by describing itself on its signage as a “learing” center.
Many of the centers appeared abandoned on weekday afternoons, when children should have been active if the centers were actually serving their legitimate purpose.
Estimates of entitlement fraud within the Minnesotan Somali community now reach well into the billions, experts say.
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