The Democrat Party may not have invented political corruption, but they have perfected and exported it throughout Blue states over the last 125 years. In recent years, the Democrats have been emboldened to dramatically enable fraud operations as part of their quest to turn the US into a one-party state for all time.
This is Part IV of a multi-part series that is examining the premise that the Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise that has been robbing taxpayers for well over one hundred years and has been laying the groundwork for money-enabled election fraud that is intended to steal elections in perpetuity.
Part I summarized major Democrat Party fraud from 1900 through 1960.
Part II summarized major Democrat fraud from 1960 through 2000, and how it has grown in scope, complexity, and enormity, and an estimate of total cost of the fraud to US taxpayers.
Part III completed the survey of Democrat election fraud through 2025, with emphasis on Minnesota-centric fraud uncovered in recent months while hinting at the importance of a key hub of the fraud networks that helps tie it all together.
This part describes that fraud hub in Minnesota and discusses how the hub is connected to other fraud sectors in Minnesota (a veritable spider web of fraud networks).
Here we go….
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM FRAUD IN MINNESOTA
Most of the attention on Minnesota fraud has been focused on daycare, child nutrition, SNAP, and Medicaid fraud. What has been woefully underreported by the legacy media – who ALWAYS do what they can to protect the Democrat Party – is the astonishing fraud associated with the transportation network in Minnesota.
Transportation fraud in Minnesota primarily involves non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) services, which are funded through Medicaid and designed to provide rides for low-income individuals to medical appointments, daycares, or other essential services. This fraud is part of a broader wave of interconnected scams targeting social welfare programs, often involving – but certainly not limited to – Somali-owned businesses and nonprofits.
Investigations reveal patterns of billing for “ghost rides” (trips that never occur), using shell companies at fake or unrelated addresses (e.g., liquor stores, residences, or empty offices), and laundering funds. Estimates suggest this specific sector contributes to millions in daily losses, with links to other sectors of Minnesota fraud that has been uncovered since 2018.
The fraud has been highlighted through independent investigations, viral videos, and media discussions, particularly by journalist Nick Shirley and radio host David Wheaton. Shirley, a 23-year-old independent reporter from Utah, has produced on-the-ground exposés, while Wheaton, host of The Christian Worldview radio program, has amplified these findings through interviews and commentary, framing them within broader discussions of immigration, welfare abuse, and political oversight failures under Democrat Farm Labor (DFL) leadership in Minnesota.
Key Details of the Transportation Fraud
Mechanism of Fraud. Companies register with the state as NEMT providers but operate as fronts. They submit false claims for rides, often tied to fictitious patients or children from linked fraudulent daycares and autism centers. For example:
- Vans are registered but rarely used, with investigators finding snow-covered vehicles or no vehicles at all.
- Billing occurs for high-volume trips (e.g., to non-existent appointments), with reimbursements from Medicaid or school districts.
- Over 1,020 NEMT entities are recognized in Minnesota, with nearly 900 Somali-owned; many “don’t exist” per on-site checks, leading to claims of at least $8 million siphoned daily through fake services.
Scale and Impact of the Fraud:
- Recent estimates from investigations peg additional fraud at $16 million just from a subset of companies visited.
- Tied to school transportation for “homeless or highly mobile” students, where a 2023 law change led to a 40% spike in claimed homeless populations, resulting in millions paid to Somali-owned vans with no passengers observed.
- Funds are allegedly used for luxury lifestyles, sent overseas via hawala networks (possibly to groups like Al-Shabaab in Somalia), or laundered back into political donations.
Examples from Investigations:
- Visits to listed addresses revealed no transport operations: e.g., a “transport company” at a liquor store or money transfer business.
- One case involved “Safari Transportation,” where no signage or vehicles were found at the registered site, leading to conclusions of outright fraud.
LINKS TO OTHER MAJOR FRAUD SECTORS IN MINNESOTA
The transportation fraud network does not operate in isolation but rather is interconnected with other scandals, forming a network of billing schemes exploiting lax oversight by state employees, some of which was exacerbated during pandemic expansions of welfare programs included in Democrat-sponsored omnibus bills. Many involve the same communities, operators, and methods (i.e., fake invoices, shell entities, kickbacks). Hold that thought about kickbacks because that’s where election fraud comes in.
Key connections within the vast fraud Minnesota network include:
- Feeding Our Future (Child Nutrition Fraud): This involved the $250 million scam of fake meal sites billing for millions of unserved meals (this was the largest COVID-era fraud detected to date). Links to transportation network fraud included that some NEMT companies transported “children” to these sham sites, billing for rides while the sites funneled funds to fraudsters and others (kickbacks). Over 78 defendants (mostly Somali Minnesotans) were charged. It was also discovered that the transportation providers shared owners or addresses with implicated nonprofits. What a web of criminality!
- Medicaid and Home Health Care Fraud: This involved broader billing for non-rendered services in programs like personal care assistance (PCA) and housing stabilization. Transportation ties in as NEMT is Medicaid-funded; fraudsters bill for rides to fake medical or therapy sessions. Since 2022, 90 people have been prosecuted for fraud so far (90% of them Somali). Transportation fraud is only part of the estimated $9 billion lost across 14 high-risk Medicare/home health fund programs.
Nonprofit involvement. Smart Therapy was a Somali-linked provider that defrauded $14 million by recruiting children in Somali communities, using unqualified technicians, and paying kickbacks. This nonprofit also received $465,000 from Feeding Our Future, which shows how the nonprofit network “shares the wealth/fraud.”
- Autism Services (EIDBI) Fraud: This involved fake therapy centers for children with autism, billing for sessions that never happen. The connection is that transportation companies bill for shuttling kids to these centers, creating a closed loop of fraud. Unqualified staff and kickbacks to parents and others amplify the schemes.
Nonprofit involvement. Smart Therapy also fraudulently billed for autism services.
- Child Care/Daycare Fraud: In this instance, empty or underused centers receive billions annually. The transportation link is that NEMT vans supposedly transport children to these daycares, but the sites are often vacant. Nick Shirley’s videos show no kids present at these locations, yet bills for transport and care continue continued to be submitted and processed by the state.
Nonprofit involvement. Several nonprofits were involved in the fraud. The Quality Learning Center received $1.9 million in 2025 ($10 million since 2019) from a vacant but operational storefront that ceased operations just this month. Mini Childcare Center, Sweet Angel Child Care, ABC Learning Center, and Nokomis Daycare Center are some of the others that were inactive or fraudulent billers for services.
- Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) and Integrated Community Supports (ICS) Fraud: These are Medicaid-funded programs in Minnesota designed to assist vulnerable populations, particularly seniors, people with disabilities, and those with substance use disorders, in securing and maintaining stable housing. Fraud in HSS and ICS primarily involves providers submitting false or inflated claims to Medicaid for services that were never provided or were minimal compared to what was billed. The scale was described as “massive” and “staggering” by federal prosecutors, with total fraud across related programs exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars
Nonprofit involvement. Four nonprofits have been linked to this sector of fraud in Minnesota: Ultimate Home Health Services LLC provided ICS services and billed for unprovided care (e.g., 12 hours claimed vs. one check-in). Bridges MN was a HCBS provider that defrauded $4 million by overbilling and providing services in owned facilities instead of clients’ homes. Promise Health Services LLC defrauded $7.2 million via overbilling, forgeries, and kickbacks. Minnesota Home was a PCA provider that defrauded $1.8 million in Medicaid and is connected to Promise Health.
These frauds are all enabled by Minnesota’s generous welfare policies, minimal verification (e.g., no site visits required to validate what is claimed), and alleged political protection from figures like Gov. Tim Walz, AG Keith Ellison, and others (TBD) in state government. Funds often flowed through interconnected Somali fraud networks, with money also exiting the US untraced. The amount of kickbacks to the Democrat Party that helped grease the skids of the fraud can only be speculated at this point but almost certainly is not insignificant.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The more I dig, the more extensive the fraud phenomenon is in Minnesota. I am convinced that, once the feds have untangled the various fraud networks there, similar audits and investigations can be conducted with alacrity in other Democrat-run states like California, Illinois, New York, and Colorado.
At present, investigations continue in Minnesota and may begin in earnest elsewhere, with calls for audits and program overhauls in many states. Critics argue that Democrat policies enabled the fraud, while defenders claim racial bias in targeting Somali communities. For me, fraud has no skin color; it’s a crime deserving of punishment regardless of who perpetrates it. Besides, a lot of the enablers in Minnesota are white!
The next part of this series describes cash remittances (where some of the fraud receipts in Minnesota went), as well as the role of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in facilitating the remittance fraud aspects of the story (fraud on top of fraud!).
The end.