00:11:40.940they were getting political kickbacks to deliberately and purposely look the other way
00:11:45.920which is exactly why governor waltz was a no-show at the minnesota house oversight hearing on
00:11:52.140tuesday you can say how you want to what what he said earlier which i played for you
00:11:56.720in front uh of the of the of the you know the house senate the state house there you can like
00:12:02.740you can say i i just passed the legislation you were involved in this corruption you weren't
00:12:10.020ignorant of it you knew it was happening there were people telling you it was happening this
00:12:14.580man in law enforcement was telling you it was happening and you guys did nothing to stop it0.97
00:12:18.900because they had been trying to conduct a fire safety inspection and had made multiple trips
00:12:25.080there on different days at different times but there were never any children or staff at the
00:12:31.340center i checked and found that in the last 12 months we had paid the center approximately one
00:12:36.320million dollars and that they were billing for the care of approximately 90 children at a time
00:12:41.720during two shifts from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. I wish I could tell you that these
00:12:48.580types of incidents were rare, but they weren't. This is what our team dealt with on a weekly basis.
00:12:55.380Once our unit received information we believed was an indicator of CCAP fraud, we would prioritize
00:13:01.460these tips primarily based on the amount of ccap funding the center received frankly we were so
00:13:08.380inundated with tips on centers receiving 700 000 to over a million dollars that we didn't have time
00:13:15.580to focus on centers receiving less funding did you hear that they had so many tips so many tips
00:13:24.580that were coming in of major massive fraud that if you were under 700 000 like yeah like we we
00:13:30.160we can't there's nothing we can do like that i mean we're doing the best we can we don't have
00:13:35.140enough manpower to stop this type of fraud by the way i don't know what this guy makes but let's
00:13:39.220just say it's under 100 grand you're telling me that you can't spend 100 grand to stop millions
00:13:46.000in fraud you understand my point here right like this is insanity and they're explaining it because
00:13:52.880this is how bad it actually got and it had been this way for years and no one in the democratic
00:14:02.000party did anything to stop it they said double down keep going look the other way and just give
00:14:06.800us our kickbacks the same kickbacks they're getting the phone calls like hey where's my payment
00:14:11.120cases were assigned to investigators who would then conduct research on the center
00:14:15.680and owner and would then initiate physical and electronic surveillance of the center
00:14:21.780The surveillance would determine how many adults and children entered the center
00:14:25.860and the times that they did so. This would later be compared with building records the
00:14:30.900center submitted for CCAP payment. If the investigation to this point indicated significant
00:14:36.500fraud, the information was shared with the BCA agent who then continued the investigation.
00:14:42.580If warranted, the agent would eventually obtain a search warrant for the center,
00:14:46.180at which time computers and phones belonging to the owner and business were seized.
00:14:52.280At the time of the search warrant, we ordered all payments to the center to be stopped.
00:14:57.300The DHS Forensics Lab would then perform forensic examinations on the electronic devices.
00:15:04.080These exams often resulted in us obtaining our most powerful evidence against those committing fraud.
00:15:11.260Here are a few of the examples of the evidence I was shown over the years by lab supervisor and staff.
00:15:19.180From an owner's cell phone, I was shown a text conversation between the owner of the center and a friend.
00:15:26.140The friend had asked the owner, how much longer are you going to do the daycare scam?
00:15:31.720The owner replied, another year or two, I'm going to buy some nice homes in Nairobi.
00:15:37.420another year or two i'm going to buy some nice homes in nairobi they were clearly hoping that
00:15:45.980kamala was going to win right because then this would still be happening right now the only reason
00:15:50.100why these people are not getting paid right now is because we have donald trump as president of
00:15:55.200the united states of america that is it the if if anybody else was in office we still wouldn't know
00:16:01.700about the leering center in my opinion and even if we did they wouldn't do anything about it
00:16:05.560like they wouldn't do anything about it this is the tip of the iceberg by the way keep listening
00:16:11.280to what he says the owner was on public assistance at this time they happened to be on vacation in
00:16:18.440dubai when this text conversation took place so you've got really really rich people on government
00:16:26.360aid who are and this goes back to brook rawlings yesterday and and if you missed that go back and
00:16:32.700listen to yesterday's show because yesterday's show we talked about some of the fraud here
00:16:37.860of the number of people on government aid that were driving lamborghinis and ferraris and bentley's
00:16:44.060and maseratis like this is they came in and they knew that they could commit massive fraud at a
00:16:52.360massive level and that no one was going to stop them and they could then get government aid and
00:16:58.400benefits as well it gets worse keep listening up to this point which was early 2017 in the roughly
00:17:06.680two and a half years of our existence our unit had directed ccap payments to be stopped to 11
00:17:12.640child care centers that we could prove had fraudulently billed dhs these stop payment
00:17:18.600orders always resulted in the immediate closure of the center because the centers we investigated
00:17:24.660never had any private paying clients only publicly funded c-cap clients okay so here's your fraud
00:17:32.320if these are all fake centers right with with no real people that they're helping as soon as the
00:17:40.300government dollars disappeared the centers would immediately close why because the government
00:17:45.260dollars was the scheme and there wasn't even kids tied to the scheme that would show up and actually
00:17:50.060do anything we also learn that right well the leering center is a great example of this many
00:17:54.640of these centers were just that they were they were paper shops they were fictitious right it
00:17:59.420was like it's like having a business at a p.o box it doesn't you know it doesn't exist that's why
00:18:04.560you'd have so many of these learning centers in these areas and no kids present no playgrounds
00:18:10.860nothing that screams kids and when you go there and try to enroll a kid they're like we don't do
00:18:15.040that right like we're full we don't need you we don't want you like because it wasn't about the
00:18:19.300kids it was about committing a fraud they didn't even try to like have normal kids by the way
00:18:25.820all right like some kids in here and then have fraud running through it with like 50% missing
00:18:33.140they didn't even try to do that folks okay like like they there was zero kids that were in there
00:18:40.100zero that and that is the point of this fraud where you know how deliberate it actually was
00:18:45.800Keep listening. Additionally, five cases had resulted in felony convictions for fraud-related
00:18:52.760crimes. I regularly joined with various investigators and agents as we interviewed
00:18:58.940the owners and employees of the child care centers being investigated. More than once,
00:19:04.780I heard an owner or employee respond when we asked where they first learned about the daycare scam.
00:19:11.680they would say they had first heard about it while in the refugee camp in kenya
00:19:17.080these individuals told us hold on wait i want you to just understand they found out about the scheme
00:19:24.440in a refugee camp in kenya that this fraud is now like that's it's worldwide fraud folks
00:19:30.440they're like yeah yeah go to america do this you'll make a lot of money so they're in a refugee camp0.64
00:19:35.620they then like we got to get to america right we we got to get there as fast as we can to get our
00:19:40.120hands on some of this money because it's a lot of money and you set it up and they'll give you food
00:19:44.500stamps you have a better way of life and you'll get all this government aid and then you can drive
00:19:47.520ferrari or lamborghini or bentley or maserati and defraud the u.s government and you don't care
00:19:51.620because it's not really your government because you're from nairobi you're from kenya you care0.79
00:19:56.980if you're if you're if you're sucking the life out of the united states america no as long as0.99
00:20:01.020you're the one that is the bug that is sucking the life out of this country you're the mosquito0.98
00:20:07.060That they had heard you could run the scam in a number of different states, but it was easiest and you could make the most money doing it in Minnesota.0.73
00:20:17.460Additionally, at about this same time, the DHS investigators and BCA agents initiated an investigation of another child care center and found a high amount of billing fraud.
00:20:29.680federal agents from the fbi the irs criminal investigation unit and agents from the u.s health
00:20:36.560and human services office inspector general were invited to join in the investigation due to some
00:20:42.960of the unusual activity and suspected crimes that we believe we saw this investigation resulted in
00:20:50.320the federal indictment in 2017 of the owner of salama child care center that owner eventually
00:20:56.720pled guilty and was sentenced in 2018 to two years in prison and was ordered to pay restitution of
00:21:03.540over 1.4 million dollars. The Salama Child Care Center was located at 1411 Nicola Avenue in
00:21:10.960Minneapolis. That address might ring a bell for some of you because of a YouTube video taken last
00:21:17.780December at the Quality Leering Center which was being operated at the same address. Okay so
00:21:26.280So what he's describing to you is multiple people that had already been brought down
00:21:32.080who then the other people would just keep using the same address.
00:25:59.080A DHS assistant commissioner was in the room watching this.
00:26:03.700Over the next approximately six months,
00:26:06.160we were directed to attend many group meetings
00:26:09.020to discuss the investigative process at length,
00:26:12.180and we were giving homework assignments to work on between the meetings.
00:26:17.140These meetings were led by the same DHS official who had berated us so badly in that first meeting.
00:26:23.880The huge amount of time our team spent in those meetings and on our assignments
00:26:29.000resulted in investigators and supervisors being unable to conduct hardly any investigative activity
00:26:35.900over the roughly six months of this program.
00:26:38.740As a result of this program, significant changes were dictated to our unit by the lead official and this process, the changes to the process included A, myself and the unit supervisor, keep in mind together between the two of us, we had 70 years of criminal investigative experience.
00:27:03.120We would no longer have the authority to decide which cases would be investigated.
00:27:08.740that would be done by a committee of three. Two members of the committee were DHS officials with
00:27:15.140no experience conducting public benefit or financial fraud investigations. I would be the
00:27:21.380third committee member, although clearly outvoted. Next, the amount of CCAP funding would not play a
00:27:28.580role in prioritizing cases. We would spend as much time investigating centers receiving
00:27:34.820a relatively small amount of CCAP money as those receiving much larger amounts.
00:27:40.860The result of this meant that roughly 50% of our limited investigative capacity
00:27:45.640would be spent on centers likely billing CCAP for less than $100,000 a year.
00:27:51.460It would also result in our team spending 50% less investigative hours
00:27:56.600on cases involving centers billing CCAP over a million dollars a year.
00:28:01.400next let me just stop there and go back to what you're hearing there was so much fraud a decade
00:28:09.300ago that this guy's saying we just couldn't go after anybody that's doing a half million or
00:28:14.180200 000 or 300 000 150 000 a year in fraud we just didn't have the manpower we had to go after
00:28:19.460the big fish the ones are doing millions and millions of dollars in fraud we couldn't do it
00:28:23.640otherwise and they just didn't have what it needed now do the roi on this if you can hire a hundred
00:28:29.920people to go after waste fraud and abuse and every one of them cost you let's just round it
00:28:33.260a hundred thousand dollars it's 10 million that is nothing compared to what you're spending in
00:28:39.440in in corruption and fraud payments going out the way that they're describing it right now
00:28:45.040like they're like there's nothing that comes close and why would the state not do it because
00:28:52.420the politicians were getting their kickback the politicians knew exactly what was happening
00:28:59.220and they were getting their kickbacks in the form of government or i should say political donations
00:29:05.220here's some here's some more money mr waltz the somali community is behind you governor waltz
00:29:10.820we'd love to support you here's a check just leave our corruption and our business alone
00:29:16.160that's what it was as he wraps us up listen the last few things he says investigators could only
00:29:21.740contact bca agents after receiving permission from a dhs official lastly dhs officials advise
00:29:29.200the BC agents to vacate our building. They would no longer have an office at DHS. At this point
00:29:36.320in June of 2019, I submitted my resignation slash retirement notice effective July of 2019. I advised
00:29:45.020the members of the Fraud Investigation Unit that I was not going to be a party to this. In closing,
00:29:50.760I would like to make the committee aware that the CCAP Fraud Supervisor and I had each worked for
00:29:55.820the state for 25 and 34 years respectfully, each of us in the Department of Public Safety at the
00:30:02.040BCA and the State Patrol, where the theft or loss of even $50 would not have been tolerated.
00:30:08.180I can't tell you how shocked we were to come to the Department of Human Services and learn after
00:30:13.500a few years that not only was the theft of untold millions of dollars tolerated, but those who tried
00:30:19.840to stop it would be subjected to the wrath of high-ranking department officials. Now what you
00:30:25.000just heard was only the opening statement you didn't get to hear unfortunately we don't have
00:30:29.180time you can look it up on the internet and you can hear the q a and and other things that he
00:30:33.760discussed but what he laid out was two things one the waste fraud and abuse was so good that
00:30:39.360minnesota was ground zero and the best place to make a lot of money doing this it's international
00:30:45.200scheme and it's being told and taught and preached in the refugee camps all the way in kenya that is0.99
00:30:54.440insane and they did this by the way all over the country as you could hear from much of those0.54
00:30:59.200communications like the best place to do this was minnesota but you could go set this up anywhere
00:31:03.840in america which means it is set up i'm sure in every single state in america i have no doubt
00:31:08.580that this is happening right now that there is massive and extensive waste fraud and abuse
00:31:16.160which is why i will say it again please share this wherever you can all right share it wherever you
00:31:23.500get your wherever you can on social media help other people hear this we're going to keep exposing
00:31:29.520it even when the media refuses to play things like this we will play it thank you for listening
00:31:34.180to the 47 morning update with ben ferguson please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're
00:31:40.560listening to this podcast right now and for more in-depth news also subscribe to the ben ferguson
00:31:46.500podcast and we will see you back here tomorrow