Independent journalist Nick Shirley and his team have been shining a light on one of Minnesota’s biggest public fraud scandals involving Medicaid, autism treatment programs, housing assistance, and childcare-related taxpayer-funded services. Their reporting brought national attention to the issue and helped force authorities to act.
Federal prosecutors say fraudsters exploited programs meant to help vulnerable children, people with autism, and low-income residents by allegedly stealing more than $90 million in public funds.
While Nick Shirley was investigating and exposing this massive fraud, the mainstream media did nothing to investigate it themselves. Why? Because Minnesota is run by Democrats, and the corporate, liberal, and public media functions as an arm of the Democratic Party — repeating their talking points and propaganda while refusing to investigate corruption involving Democrats.
Instead, they chose to attack Nick Shirley’s reporting. Rather than investigating the scandal, CNN sent reporter Whitney Wild to confront him on camera outside one of the centers and question his methods. The Star Tribune visited the same daycare locations featured in his videos and published multiple pieces questioning his claims and approach. Outlets like The New York Times, NPR/MPR, and The New Yorker ran critical stories labeling his reporting as misleading, sensationalized, or unsubstantiated — devoting far more attention to his style, background, and methods than to the evidence of fraud he presented.
Only after federal charges were announced on May 21 did mainstream media finally report on the $90 million fraud scandal.
Now the allegations are official.
On Thursday, May 21, federal authorities announced charges against 15 individuals accused of participating in fraud schemes that allegedly stole more than $90 million in taxpayer money. Prosecutors described it as the largest autism fraud scheme in U.S. history.
Nick Shirley posted a 22-minute video on X and wrote the following message:
“The Minnesota fraud empire is falling:
Yesterday 15 fraudsters were charged and $90 million was busted. The MSM tried to cover for the fraudsters.
@GovTimWalz called it “white supremacy” to expose it and @IlhanMN is completely SILENT.
Independent journalism defeated an entire fraud network upheld by billions of dollars with support from corrupt politicians who allowed this fraud and the MSM who failed to report it.
Major win for America and hardworking law-abiding taxpaying citizens.
This is just the beginning.
Arrest them all.”
Below is the first three minutes of that video.
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You can watch the full 22-minute video from Nick Shirley at