The Nine-Billion-Dollar Somali Fraud

By | Dec 31, 2025

The nine billion dollars that a network of nearly a hundred Somali-Americans in Minneapolis stole from American taxpayers is the largest fraud — forget about the Yazoo Land and the Teapot Dome scandals — in American history. The investigation is still going on, and still more frauds may be discovered, and other Somalis may emerge as participants. But it’s not too early for a summing up, at this stage, of the story so far, which you can find here: “Minnesota’s Somali-linked scams drain US taxpayers of a sum rivaling Somalia’s GDP: Read how the welfare system was gamed in a multi-billion-dollar fraud,” by Rukma Rathore, OpIndia, December 30, 2025:

With around 80,000 residents, Minnesota hosts the biggest Somali diaspora in the United States. Many of them are refugees from the civil war that has raged in their native nation since 1991. They moved to Minneapolis and its suburbs, enticed by meatpacking jobs, Lutheran charity networks, and a more generous welfare system than others.

The civil war in Somalia is over. Shouldn’t our government now insist that those who claimed “refugee status” because they fled that civil war, and have not become citizens, now be asked to return home? After all, they are “refugees” no longer. And shouldn’t those Somali-Americans who may be citizens, but are shown to have taken part in this immense series of frauds while they were applying for American citizenship, now be stripped of their citizenship?

Notably, anti-India Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is also of Somali descent. However, the community has often come into the spotlight following significant scandals that erupted concerning Minnesota’s social programmes. An astounding $9 billion is the anticipated overall damage, which is close to Somalia’s entire GDP.

It was also determined that of the 98 defendants indicted and over 60 convictions in significant fraud cases across the state, 85 are either Somali Americans or of Somali heritage.

The truth comes to light
On 27th December, the issue surfaced after Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old YouTuber, exposed the pervasive fraud at childcare centres run by Somalis using publicly accessible data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services. These facilities had received millions in government subsidies, but the footage showed deserted playgrounds, blacked-out windows, closed doors at licensed daycares and angry employees who screamed or ran away when confronted.

A woman even yelled, “Don’t open up, it’s ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).” A neighbour also attested that no kids had been spotted there in eight years. Shirley stated, “This could be the largest fraud scandal in US history,” during his investigation. He pointed out that federal and state funding were diverted to businesses that had negligible or no operational history….

It was a 23-year-old investigator, Nick Shirley, and not anyone working for the state of Minnesota, who managed to supply the evidence of empty childcare centers that had received $110 million in state aid, which turned out to be a small part of the massive fraud. A coup for Mr.Shirley, and a great embarrassment for the state government, including Governor Tim Walz, who had continued to sing the praises of the Somali community against those who expressed alarm over its role in the fraud.

In addition to whatever punishment — prison time and large fines — these fraudsters may receive, there is a further punishment now being considered: stripping the fraudsters of their American citizenship, and, after they have served their sentences, deporting them back to the hellhole of Somalia, which will be a source of great anguish for them.

It would have been bad enough had the original figure of $1 billion stolen by fraudsters not increased first to $3 billion, then to $5 billion, and now to a scarcely believable sum of $9 billion. But still worse is the fact that much of that money ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group in Somalia that has links to Al Qaeda. The Minnesota taxpayer has thus been helping to fund Al-Shabaab, and hence, also, Al-Qaeda. The two government officials most responsible for this state of affairs are Walz and the state’s Attorney General, Keith Ellison. One hopes this will put a stake through the heart of their political ambitions. Given their failures to investigate, or even to admit to, the Somali scandal, Walz and Ellison ought to be finished as politicians. But who knows? The scandal-ridden Ilhan Omar was a friend to at least one of the Somalis, a restaurant owner who was involved in the fraud. Yet Omar still riding high, still sure to be reelected by her Somali-heavy electorate.

“I wouldn’t be proud to have the largest Somalian – look at their nation. Look how bad their nation is. It’s not even a nation. It’s just people walking around killing each other. Look, these Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country. Billions and billions,” Trump later outlined.

“Those Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country,” he further stated. “Go back to your own country and figure out your constitution. All she (Omar Ilhan) does is complain about this country, and without this country, she would not be in very good shape. She probably wouldn’t be alive right now. Somalia is considered by many to be the worst country on Earth. I don’t know. I haven’t been there, I won’t be there anytime soon, I hope,” the president added.

The Trump administration intends to deploy additional federal agents to Minneapolis with the authority to target Somalis, especially those who have final deportation orders.

Does anyone take issue with Trump’s description of Somalia? Isn’t it, by every measure, including the World Happiness Index, the Religious Freedom Index, the Corruption Barometer, the Violence Scale, close to being “the worst country on Earth”? Why import into the U.S. any more of those people who come, according to many foreign observers besides Trump, from the “worst country in the world”? And after this nine-billion-dollar loss of government aid money meant for the poor, to Somali immigrant scammers and their progeny, isn’t it time to halt all immigration from Somalia, and to insist that all Somalis convicted of crimes will, at the conclusion of their sentences, be stripped of American citizenship (if they managed to acquire it), and be sent back to their hideous country of origin on the Horn of Africa?

January 2, 2026 | Comments »

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