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By Hugh Cameron
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The daycare center with a misspelled sign at the heart of Nick Shirley's now-viral video alleging fraud in Minnesota has hit back at his claims after the YouTuber said it was empty, despite apparently receiving millions in subsidies.
On Friday, Shirley released a 42-minute video alleging that nearly a dozen taxpayer-funded daycare centers in Minnesota are not actually providing any service.
The sites he visited included the Quality Learing Center (which contained a misspelled word at the time of his investigation), which appeared to be inactive despite being licensed to serve 99 children. The YouTuber claimed it had received $1.9 million in 2025, and $4 million in total funding from Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP).
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However, speaking to The New York Post on Monday, Ibrahim Ali, identified as the center's manager, said that Shirley came to the facility outside of its regular hours—Monday to Thursday between 2 and 10 p.m.
"Do you go to a coffee shop at 11 p.m. and say, ‘Hey, they’re not working?’" he told The Post.
He told Fox News there was no fraud taking place "whatsoever".
Images taken by The Post also show several children entering the center on Monday afternoon. Several calls to the center by Newsweek went unanswered on Monday. Newsweek has contacted Shirley via X for a response.
Why It Matters
Widespread welfare fraud in Minnesota was first uncovered by Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice in 2022, with the Feeding Our Future scam. It described defendants at the time as people “who have exploited the pandemic for personal gain and stolen from American taxpayers.” So far 57 defendants have been convicted, and 78 charged, according to The Associated Press.
Cases have snowballed since then. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said in mid-December, that $9 billion or more in federal funds allocated to 14 state-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen. Governor Tim Walz and other officials have disputed the financial figure, but acknowledge the scale of issue and their determination to solve it.
The case is politically and culturally loaded as 82 of the 92 defendants charged so far are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the Somali American community in recent weeks, referring to them as "garbage," but critics have said the cases have been used "as an excuse to smear an entire community".
What To Know
In the video published Friday, which has racked up over 120 million views on X, Shirley visited a number of daycare facilities in Minnesota.
Footage of the center became a key point of focus, given the millions of dollars Shirley said the facility had apparently received from CCAP, a state-administered subsidy program assisting low-income families pay for childcare.
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), which administers CCAP funding, told Newsweek it was "committed to doing everything we can" to investigate the allegations in Shirley’s video.
"Our program integrity efforts are strong, and we know that fraudsters are always changing their tactics so we are always evolving our efforts," it added.
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At a news conference on Monday, DCYF Commissioner Tikki Brown said that recent inspections of the facilities in Shirley’s video did not uncover evidence of fraud.
"We are aware of a video that's being circulated that has gained local and national attention about childcare centers in Minnesota," said Brown. "While we have questions about some of the methods that were used in the video, we do take the concerns that the video raises about fraud very seriously."
Brown also claimed that the center had closed down, but this was disputed by its staff on Monday. The DCYF told Newsweek that one of the facilities featured in the video had shuttered in 2022, but said it recently learned that the center at the heart of the controversy had "decided to remain open."
"Each of the facilities mentioned in the video has been visited at least once in the last six months as part of our typical licensing process," the department told Newsweek, adding that its staff would be visiting them again to address the concerns raised in the video.
What People Are Saying
Ibrahim Ali, identified as manager of the Quality Learning Center, told Fox News: "I do feel like what was done was someone came to our building outside of operating hours. We have a specific sign on our door that says our days and our hours. [They] came outside of those hours and then claimed, ‘Hey, they’re closed, and they’re still making money.’"
He added that the mistake on the sign was the fault of a graphic designer, and that this would be fixed "by the end of this week."
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families told Newsweek on Monday: "We're aware of the video circulating online that has raised concerns about several child care centers in Minnesota. We take the concerns raised in this video very seriously. Each of the facilities mentioned in the video has been visited at least once in the last six months as part of our typical licensing process. Our staff are out in the community today to visit each of these sites again so that we can look into the concerns raised in the video."
"We are committed to making sure that every dollar of the Child Care Assistance Program, and other programs, is going where it’s supposed to go and being used as intended," it added. "We will not stand for fraud being committed, and if any of the concerns raised in the video are found to be true we will take every action within our authority to address the issues."
What Happens Next
Beyond internal investigations by Minnesota state agencies, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that it is ramping up efforts to investigate fraud in Minnesota, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posting a video to X on Monday showing immigration officials in the state conducting what she called "a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud."
And Attorney General Pam Bondi warned on Monday that there were "more prosecutions coming" from the Justice Department’s monthslong investigations into fraud in Minnesota.
Update 12/30/2025, 11:01 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with more information and context.
Correction 12/31/2025 07:42 a.m. ET: This article referred to Ali Ibrahim as the owners' son. It has been updated to refer to him as Ibrahim Ali and a manager of the center instead in line with other reporting. It also has been updated with more context.
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