Unraveling Somali day care fraud in Minnesota (Part 1); did taxpayer money leave the country?
Because the story is so big and growing, and I don’t know where to start, I’ll post one news story at a time from the growing scandal involving taxpayer rip-offs by Somali day care workers. Reader ‘Pungentpeppers,’ our unofficial crime investigator, has sent a ream of stories and so I’ll dive in with this one first.
Yasmin Abdulle Ali (33) charged with 52 felony counts. Will she be deported? Don’t hold your breath!
But, before I begin I want to impress upon readers that the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is actually giving out micro-enterprise loans to teach immigrant women how to set up culturally appropriate day care centers in their homes! Heck, you can get paid to take care of children in your own home and don’t have to send them out to any American (multicultural!) daycare center where they might actually learn English and meet people of different races and religions.
I don’t know if those being arrested in Minnesota ever took part in a federally-funded program, but we’ll see as the investigation continues.
This is what the ORR says on its website about its “Home-based Child Care” micro-enterprise “loans.” (Emphasis is mine):
General Background
Microenterprise development services traditionally include business technical assistance or short-term training, credit in the form of micro-loans, and, if applicable, a revolving loan fund. The programs are designed to be culturally and linguistically appropriate for the refugee population. Initiated in 2011, the Microenterprise Development – Home-Based Childcare Program is a new program for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), designed to support home-based child care mentoring programsprimarily for refugee women interested in providing child care services in their homes.
Microenterprise development services traditionally include business technical assistance or short-term training, credit in the form of micro-loans, and, if applicable, a revolving loan fund. The programs are designed to be culturally and linguistically appropriate for the refugee population. Initiated in 2011, the Microenterprise Development – Home-Based Childcare Program is a new program for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), designed to support home-based child care mentoring programsprimarily for refugee women interested in providing child care services in their homes.
Program Description
This project will teach refugee women about state and federal child care laws, regulations and licensing requirements and about American cultural norms concerning child care and child development. By encouraging refugee women to apply their new child care knowledge and skills in the job market, the project will assist refugee women in acquiring English language skills, advancing their education, learning basic financial skill, and improving their economic opportunities.
This project will teach refugee women about state and federal child care laws, regulations and licensing requirements and about American cultural norms concerning child care and child development. By encouraging refugee women to apply their new child care knowledge and skills in the job market, the project will assist refugee women in acquiring English language skills, advancing their education, learning basic financial skill, and improving their economic opportunities.
A secondary objective of the program is to expand home-based child care business options for other refugees, to enable them to enter the workforce with confidence that their children are being cared for by individuals possessing appropriate cultural competency.
Here is a list of present contractors administering the loan program. And, look who is eligible—non-citizens only!
All low income refugees who are not citizens are eligible for services under this program.
Now to the outrageous news from Minneapolis (Fox 9 investigation)! Merry Christmas Minnesota taxpayers!
First food stamp fraud, then Medicaid/Medicare fraud, now this! Is this happening in your refugee “welcoming” city?
(KMSP) – The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office says day care owners defrauded the government out of $4 million dollars and have charged 4 people with a combined 96 felonies.
The announcement comes nearly two years after the Fox 9 Investigators first reported details about the DEQO Family Centers, located in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Apple Valley. The stories detailed how the centers employed some mothers of its daycare children who qualified for state funded child care. The program helps low-income parents pay their child care costs who are working.
DEQO owners would bill the county for child care while the mothers were supposed to be working. But Fox 9 sources, who were employees for the business back in February 2013, said the jobs were not legitimate. “Sometimes they would come in, sign in their children, sign themselves in and go grocery shopping,” one of the sources said.
Ramsey County investigators say the time sheets submitted to the county by the “working” mothers had inflated hours on them, allowing the owners to bill the government for maximum child care time. ...
Posts
