An exchange on Fox News highlighted allegations of widespread fraud involving Minnesota transportation companies, with investigative commentator Nick Shirley describing what he said was extensive abuse tied to state-funded programs and enabled by political inaction.

Shirley appeared with host Jesse Watters to discuss his on-the-ground investigation into transportation providers connected to daycare operations across Minnesota.

According to Shirley, many of the companies receiving taxpayer money appeared to have no legitimate operations at all.

Watters asked Shirley whether community leaders were defending those accused of fraud even if they were not directly involved.

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“Like, even if they're not involved in the fraud, are they still defending the Somali tribe?” Watters asked.

“Well, you heard them,” Shirley responded.

“They heard the one man say, he said, Are we the only people that commit fraud? And so it feels like it's all sort of almost like a big community that's trying to hide from the fraud, when, in reality, 89% of the fraud that's happening inside Minnesota is from Somalians, and that's just a fact of the matter.”

Shirley said his reporting involved visiting addresses linked to transportation companies that were supposed to be providing services to children attending daycare facilities. Watters asked whether Shirley saw any evidence of functioning transportation services.

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“So you guys were working off of a list here,” Watters said.

“Did you go to any addresses that had cars that were taking kids to day cares?”

“No, and I'm being 100% honest, there was not a single location we went to where there was cars that were moving people around Minnesota,” Shirley said.

Watters then asked whether Shirley attempted to contact the companies by phone.

“Ad you were calling the phone numbers too. Did anybody pick up?” Watters asked.

“Yeah, well, I mean, like Quality Learing Center, for instance, that phone number went to nowhere,” Shirley said.

“If you make a phone call to any of these locations, I mean, just going to the address is enough. There wasn't anyone even there. There wasn't even signs on a lot of these places. They were apartment buildings. So, I mean, phone phone call wouldn't have done much.”

The discussion then turned to the role of elected officials and whether state leaders were unaware of what Shirley described as clear signs of fraud.

“All right, so you're out on the street, and is it, is it clear that the politicians were clueless?” Watters asked.

“I mean, how could they have not known about this?”

“Well, they obviously knew, because they've enabled it to happen for so long,” Shirley replied.

“I mean, for instance, quality leering center, it had over 90 violations, yet they kept giving that daycare millions of dollars.”

Shirley said the lack of visible transportation activity should have been obvious to anyone paying attention.

“And these transportation companies, I mean, if anyone in Minnesota is watching this right now, they know what I'm talking about, because you drive around Minneapolis and you'll see nobody inside of these transportation vehicles,” he said.

Watters closed the segment by asking Shirley about the next steps in his investigation.

“I mean, without giving away your logistics, what's next?” Watters asked.

“Well, I think there's a lot more fraud to be exposed across the country, and there might be more fraud exposed inside Minnesota,” Shirley said.

“There's a lot of fraud, and fraud is very, very, very deep in Minnesota.”

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