Federal agents raided more than 20 businesses in the Minneapolis area on Tuesday morning as part of a wide-reaching investigation into welfare fraud.
The operation targeted several businesses in the Twin Cities, including the Quality “Learing” Center made famous by journalist Nick Shirley’s investigation last year. The child care site garnered national attention after Shirley’s viral video prompted questions about whether these organizations received taxpayer funds without providing actual services.
From Fox News:
Federal authorities raided more than 20 locations, including childcare facilities, in Minneapolis on Tuesday as part of a sweeping fraud investigation into largely Somali-owned businesses, sources confirmed to Fox News.
"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 Department of Justice spokesperson said.
Authorities executed 22 federal search warrants in Minnesota on Tuesday morning as part of the operation, which is not immigration-related, sources said.
The raids center on federal fraud investigations into largely Somali-owned businesses, including childcare facilities that registered their daycare with the state but were allegedly billing for care that was not provided.
NOW: Federal agents are swarming the Quality Learing Center in Minneapolis as they carry out raids at more than 20 locations across the area. pic.twitter.com/1GkzQU9siN
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 28, 2026
The authorities have not announced charges related to the investigation, but they did confirm they were authorized by the courts and part of an active criminal probe.
The raids included several Somali-owned businesses. They involved the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The FBI Minneapolis spokesperson told FOX 9 that the Bureau, along with state and local law enforcement agencies, “is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.”
HSI explained, “For reasons of operational security and for the safety of our agents, we will not comment further at this time.”
🚨 MASSIVE FEDERAL RAIDS UNDERWAY IN MINNEAPOLIS
— MR X (@TheMrXGuy1) April 28, 2026
DOJ and federal agents are hitting 22 locations across the city this morning as part of a major fraud investigation.
pic.twitter.com/Zcs9QSxQU1
This comes after it was revealed that there was rampant abuse of federal and state welfare programs occurring in Minnesota — especially in the Minneapolis area. The most prominent involved an organization called Feeding Our Future, a federal food-aid fraud case in which the organization allegedly bilked the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Other organizations were found to have applied for government welfare funds that were ostensibly going toward feeding children and providing daycare services. In reality, they were doing no such thing. Instead, the fraudsters pocketed the cash and used it for personal expenses. In some cases, they even sent the money overseas to a Somali radical Islamic extremist group.