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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday that the Department of Justice has arrested and charged 98 people in Minnesota in connection with fraud investigations, adding that 85 of those charged are of Somali descent. As the investigations continue, she anticipates additional prosecutions.
Her announcement followed the release of a series of videos by Nick Shirley, which alleged that fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community extended beyond the high-profile Feeding Our Future case. That case centers on allegations that the Minneapolis-based nonprofit improperly diverted large amounts of federal funds intended to provide meals for at-risk children and families.
Released late last week, the video has garnered nationwide attention, including from the Trump DOJ.
“[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!”
Bondi described several cases that they had already prosecuted, including the Feeding Our Future scheme and a related juror bribery case. As Bondi pointed out, this situation was “not unlike what you would see in the corrupt Somali judicial system.”
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In addition to the Feeding Our Future case, authorities have identified multiple instances of Medicaid fraud, including schemes involving services purportedly provided to children with autism.
In September, the Department of Justice announced charges against Asha Farhan Hassan, alleging the 28-year-old received nearly $500,000 for her role in a $14 million fraud scheme connected to autism services.
“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.”
The allegations mirror issues highlighted in Shirley’s widely viewed video, which examined a number of so-called “learning centers,” including one that drew attention for misspelling the word “learning” on its signage.
The video showed that several of the facilities appeared largely vacant during weekday afternoons, a time when children would be expected to be present if the centers were operating as intended.
