Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Dec. 29 that the Department of Justice has been investigating Minnesota’s recently exposed fraud for months and that nearly 100 individuals have been charged since 2022, 85 of whom are of Somali descent.

Bondi credited independent journalist Nick Shirley for posting a video that reported $110 million of alleged and proven fraud. In the video, which has garnered more than 132 million views on X, Shirley knocks on doors at Somali-owned day cares and autism and health care businesses in Minnesota.

The attorney general said that more than 60 individuals have already been found guilty in court.

“[Shirley’s] work has helped show Americans the scale of fraud in Tim Walz’s Minnesota,” Bondi posted on X, adding that more prosecutions are coming.

Bondi said the DOJ, along with U.S. Attorney General for Minnesota Daniel Rosen, has been working to build cases against the alleged fraudsters. Rosen was appointed to his position in October.

She said her agency has also worked closely with other federal partners, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, on the prosecutions.

Bondi’s X post highlighted several Minnesota cases that have already been prosecuted.

Chavez-DeRemer, in a social media post, accused state leaders such as Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) of allowing the fraud scheme to develop.

“We will bring an end to the Somali fraud network,” the Department of Labor posted on X.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In one example, which Bondi described as the largest COVID-19 fraud case in the country, a federally funded child nutrition program called Feeding Our Future claimed to have provided millions of meals for children.

“Few, if any, were fed,” Bondi said in her announcement.

The attorney general reported that 78 defendants have been charged to date in the scam and that 57 have been convicted. Of the defendants, 72 are of Somali descent and five are currently fugitives in Africa, Bondi said.

She said that between $300 million and $400 million in U.S. taxpayer money has been sent to East Africa and the Middle East.

The scheme’s leader was sentenced to 28 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $48 million in restitution, according to an August DOJ statement. The leader of the scam, Kenyan national Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, claimed to have served 18 million meals to children.

“This country gave Farah everything,“ then-acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in August when arguing for a longer sentence. ”A home. Citizenship. A free college education. After that he went on to public employment with the state of Minnesota. And how did he repay this country and this state? By robbing us blind.”

Another defendant in the Feeding Our Future scheme, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, was sentenced last month to 10 years in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $48 million in restitution.

In Bondi’s X post, she said that more defendants involved in the massive amount of fraud attempted to bribe three jurors by delivering bags to their homes containing $120,000, a promise of more money if they voted to acquit at trial, and a note that read: “We are immigrants; they don’t respect or care about us. ... The government kept attacking Somali culture ... [and] was very racist.”

In another example, the attorney general detailed an autism treatment Medicaid scheme. The state-funded program was supposed to cost $20 million but ballooned to $200 million at taxpayers’ expense, Bondi alleged.

“Parents in the Somali community reported their children diagnosed as autistic, brought them into daycares disguised as ‘clinics,’ and received huge financial kickbacks,” Bondi said in an X post.

In another Medicaid scheme involving housing services for senior citizens and people with disabilities or mental illnesses, taxpayers were allegedly scammed out of $125 million per year. Eight alleged fraudsters have been charged and accused of starting fake LLCs, then signing up drug addicts and others in halfway houses for services that were never provided, Bondi alleged.

“I want to be clear on the scope of the crisis,” Thompson said. “What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need. It feels never ending. I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away.”

The same day as the attorney general’s Dec. 29 announcement on X, Noem posted that agents were on the ground in Minnesota for a “massive” investigation into child care and other “rampant fraud.” Homeland Security also made a separate post, showing DHS agents walking into what appeared to be a smokeshop.

“The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found,” Homeland Security said in its post.

In an X post on Dec. 29, Shirley said there are serious threats being made against him.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the amount of restitution Abdimajid Mohamed Nur was ordered to pay and the number of people charged with day care fraud in Minnesota. The Epoch Times regrets the error.