Citizen journalist Nick Shirley has released a new undercover video in Minneapolis that raises fresh questions about whether taxpayer-funded transportation programs are being systematically abused by politically connected, Somali-run operations.
According to Breitbart, Shirleys latest investigation takes him to multiple addresses in Minneapolis that are supposed to house companies providing government-funded taxi services for low-income and medically vulnerable residents. At these locations, he encounters ethnic Somalis who respond by shouting at him rather than offering documentation or any clear evidence that their organizations are actually delivering services to American clients as taxpayers intend.
Shirleys work has forced local, pro-Democrat media outlets to acknowledge and describe patterns of fraud they long ignored or downplayed. That prior silence appears to have been driven by career-threatening pressure from Democratic politicians and activist networks that benefit from the Somali-managed schemes and have little interest in exposing abuse within their own patronage systems.
The new video zeroes in on Somali-run transportation firms that are paid to shuttle poor or unhealthy individuals to and from hospitals, clinics, government offices, retail stores, and private homes under Medicaid and related welfare programs. These transportation companies are what hold all the [aid and welfare] fraud together, Shirley says in the video, adding:
You have the daycare centers working with the transportation companies, the adult daycare centers working with the transportation companies, the healthcare companies working with the transportation companies . [to] make it look like [services are being provided] here inside of Minnesota.
Shirley and his colleague David Hoch argue that this web of interlocking entities is designed to create the appearance of legitimate services while siphoning off public money. Were shining the light on the fraud, and they have no defense, said Shirleys colleague, David Hoch.
The videos have also emboldened ordinary Americans to come forward with their own accounts of how the system is allegedly being gamed. In a recent TikTok video, a former drug addict said he was able to buy drugs because Somali drivers paid him for signing the fake taxi receipts needed to get government payouts to the drivers.
Even Minnesotas dominant establishment newspaper, long aligned with the states Democratic power structure, is now conceding that the program is vulnerable to abuse. A transportation service that pays for peoples rides to medical appointments is among the Medicaid-funded programs facing new scrutiny for its vulnerability to fraud, the pro-Democrat Minnesota Star Tribune acknowledged as Shirleys video was being posted, before elaborating on concerns raised by industry insiders.
People working in nonemergency medical transportation have been ringing the fraud bell for quite some time, said Scott Isaacson, president of the Minnesota R-80 Transportation Coalition, which represents many providers, the paper reported. He shared a list with the Minnesota Star Tribune of the 10 most prevalent forms of fraud in the program that he and others in the field are aware of.
The financial scale of the program has grown dramatically, creating fertile ground for waste and corruption. The program, along with many other Medicaid-funded services, have seen expenditures climb in recent years, the Star Tribune noted, adding that Minnesota Department of Human Services data shows nonemergency medical transportation providers billed around $80 million in 2018. By 2024, that climbed to more than $115 million before dipping last year to roughly $88 million.
The newspaper further admitted that concerns about lax oversight are not new and have been flagged for more than a decade. But concerns about lack of oversight in the medical transportation program date back even further, the paper conceded, recalling that more than 15 years ago a report by Minnesotas Office of the Legislative Auditor highlighted various issues with how the state was running nonemergency medical transportation. It included a warning that the Department of Human Services provides little statewide oversight of the program.
The abuse, according to prosecutors cited by the paper, has also intersected with fraud in taxpayer-funded translation and interpretation services. [One provider] allowed people to be transported up to 60 miles for specialty care without preauthorization, the report stated, adding that according to prosecutors, interpreters recruited people around Faribault and arranged appointments with providers such as a acupuncturist, dentist or mental health counselor who were nearly 60 miles away in the metro who did not speak the same language as the clients. Meanwhile, there were providers closer to the clients homes, some of whom did speak their language.
Yet even as it finally acknowledges systemic vulnerabilities, the Star Tribune attempts to distance the specific Somali-run firms highlighted by Shirley and Hoch from the Medicaid money trail. The transportation providers Shirley highlights in his video are not listed as having received reimbursements from the state in Medicaid claims data provided by the Department of Human Services, the paper asserted, a caveat that does little to address broader questions about shell companies, subcontracting, or off-the-books arrangements.
At the federal level, officials in the Trump-aligned camp are signaling that they see Minnesota as ground zero for a much larger crackdown on welfare fraud, kickbacks, and racketeering tied to Democratic political machines. My personal motto, and the Treasury motto, is move deliberately and fix things, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told conservative activist Christopher Rufo on a podcast on January 12, adding:
Youre not going to see headlines tomorrow. Youre not going to see them next week, but in a month, [or a] quarter, once we get people in the bear trap, theyre not getting out because we will have conclusive evidence to present. I think that they will have to make plea deals to turn in higher-ups to help us map out how this happened.
Bessent made clear that Minnesota is not an isolated concern but a template for a nationwide effort to restore accountability in sprawling welfare bureaucracies. Were going to take this Minnesota [strategy] map to the other 49 states, he added.
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