I’ve been doing a lot of interviews about Somali fraud lately. And the people I talk to are usually baffled when I say that I’ve been covering it since 2018-2019. This isn’t some recent development. What did happen recently, especially beginning with COVID, is that the fraud ballooned into the billions, but it goes well back.

Minnesota authorities knew that Somali welfare state operations had a systemic history of fraud going way back.

Take the 2015 busts of Somali day care centers.

Four people were arrested Tuesday and two more arrests are likely in connection with charges filed against three Minneapolis day-care centers that primarily serve poorer children, authorities said.

Felony charges were filed against Minnesota Child Care Services, 2500 Minnehaha Av.; Children’s Choice Center, 2700 Summer St. NE., and Ummah Child Care Center, 2505 5th Av. S., authorities announced at an afternoon news conference at the Hennepin County Government Center.

The centers are accused of overbilling the state’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) by claiming that they cared for more children than were actually present. For example, during a two-week span at the end of last year, Minnesota Child Care Services billed the state for 2,183 children, while a video revealed that no more than 1,233 children were actually attending — a difference of 950 children.

In May, the DHS shut down Salama Child Care Center, a Minneapolis day care that had allegedly billed the state for hundreds of hours of services that were never provided. That case is unrelated.

“They cheated big and they got caught,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said of the day-care operators, many of whom have relationships and overlapping employment or ownership at the targeted facilities.

Somali community activist Omar Jamal, who knows a key suspect in the investigation, said documentation for provider reimbursement is complicated and encouraged the state to provide more training for new businesspeople.

This may be the same Omar Jamal currently facing deportation.

Somali-American community activist Omar Jamal spoke on Friday about his time being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and held in a jail in Albert Lea, Minnesota.

In the past, Omar Jamal has been a spokesperson for the Somali community in Minneapolis. He says he joined the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office as a civilian community service officer in 2020. But when he was arrested in August, the Department of Homeland Security cited his criminal history, which they say includes “assault, fraud, and making fraudulent statements,” accusations Jamal has disputed.

He was first issued a final order of removal in 2011, but was not deported

But back to the 2015 busts. The Somalis claimed that they were victims and the media took their side.

It was about six in the evening and employees of Ummah Child Care Center filled the reception area as children’s voices echoed throughout the building.

For Khadija Hassan, the center offers something she didn’t have when she lived in Willmar, Minn., two years ago. She gets to earn a living while watching her young children at the same time.

Hassan, a mother of five children ages 6 months to 8 years old, says she was drawn to Ummah when she applied for the Child Care Assistance Program at Hennepin County. The name, Ummah, is an Arabic word for community.

Actually Ummah means the Islamic communality. One that operates under Islamic law and oppresses non-Muslims. But let that pass.

Ummah is one of several day care centers that closed after prosecutors opened up fraud investigations into their billing activities. Four months have passed since charges were filed against the corporations and prosecutors haven’t charged the individual operators.

Asha Abdi who works at a different Somali-run day care center, not involved in the case, said the whole community has been feeling the consequences of this investigation.

“It’s unfair, it’s unconstitutional to actually put people behind bars, finger print them, blast them on the news,” she said, adding that one of the day care employees lost a second job. “A lot of things that come into play but without the state actually having all the facts.”

The day care center operators are all Somali who incorporate their culture into daily activities with the children. They speak the language, serve Somali food and open extended hours to accommodate unconventional work schedules.

Seven people were arrested and released last fall. Three of them were arrested at the airport as they returned from a trip to Dubai.

Abdi said the investigation has caused Somali-run day cares to believe they’re being watched for no reason.

Minnesota Department of Human Services Inspector General Jerry Kerber said the three day care providers deceive families eligible for the program by recruiting them, offering them phony jobs with pay stubs and encouraging them to enroll their kids there without actually attending.

And what happened to them? A light slap on the wrist.

As part of the settlement, the billers for all three centers agreed to sign disqualification agreements barring them from working with state-licensed child care providers for two years. In return, the Hennepin County Attorney’s office agreed not to charge them criminally.

Charges against two of the executives of the Minnesota Child Care Center were also dismissed as part of the settlement.

Disqualified from billing the state for only 2 years. No criminal charges. No wonder this went on.

Minnesota DFLers and their bureaucrats can play dumb all they like (Gov. Tim Walz is especially good at it) but they knew this was going on.