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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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The daycare center at the heart of YouTuber Nick Shirley's viral video alleging fraud in Minnesota has fixed its misspelled sign, according to photographs taken by multiple media outlets.
On Friday, Shirley released a 42-minute video, that has now been viewed more than 130 million times, alleging that nearly a dozen taxpayer-funded daycare centers in Minnesota are not actually providing any service.
One of the locations he visited, the Quality Learning Center, displayed a misspelled sign above an entrance reading 'Quality Learing Center' that was widely shared on social media.
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Shirley claimed the business appeared to be inactive despite being licensed to serve 99 children. The YouTuber said it had received $1.9 million in 2025, and $4 million in total funding from Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). Newsweek has not been able to verify Shirley's claims.
However, the center hit back saying there was no fraud taking place "whatsoever" and that the YouTuber had visited outside of its regular hours - Monday to Thursday, from 2 to 10 p.m. Images taken by The New York Post also showed several children entering the center on Monday afternoon.
Fox News said it had photographed people correcting the sign late on Monday night. The update also appeared visible in a social media post by Shirley on Tuesday.
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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 that is estimated to have cost taxpayers $250 million. So far 57 defendants have been convicted, and 78 charged, according to The Associated Press (AP).
More cases have emerged since then. Speaking in mid-December, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, said that $9 billion or more in federal funds allocated to 14 state-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen. The case is politically and culturally loaded as 82 of the 92 defendants charged so far are Somali Americans, according to AP citing the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota
What To Know
Fox News said the correctly spelled sign was installed on Monday. On Tuesday evening, Shirley posted a photo of himself outside the center with the update seemingly visible in the background.
Ibrahim Ali, identified as the manager of the site, said on Monday that the sign would be corrected by the end of the week.
He also hit back at Shirley's allegations and said there was no fraud going on "whatsoever". He told Fox News: "A lot of the journalism that has been going on the last couple of days has been really dishonest.
"i don't want to point fingers at anybody but I do feel like what was done was someone came to our building outside of operating hours, when there is a spefific sign on our door that says our days and hours, he came outside of those hours and then claimed 'hey, they are closed' and they are still making money, they are using taxpayers money to work.
"And then it's like you don't come outside of operational hours and then say they are using taxpayers' money that is completely false. As you can see we are open, Mondays through Thursdays, 2 to 10 p.m."
He added: "He was here earlier, and I dont see him right now, so it's like are you trying to record that we are doing fraud or are you trying to put the Somali name and fraud in the same sentence, that is what really hurt us the last couple of days. We're open, we've been open, we haven't closed, we've been open for eight-and-a-half years now, we haven't closed once during that period."
Newsweek previously contacted Quality Learning Center by phone to comment on this story.
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.
What People Are Saying
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."
Governor Tim Walz's office said in a previous statement to Newsweek: "The Governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and asked the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action. He has strengthened oversight—including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed. He has hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions."
What Happens Next
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday that the agency had deployed personnel and resources to Minnesota "to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs."
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Monday that there were "more prosecutions coming" from the Justice Department’s monthslong investigations into fraud in Minnesota.
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