The corruption in Minnesota runs deeper than anyone imagined.
Federal investigators keep uncovering layer after layer of fraud.
And Ilhan Omar got caught in one massive scheme that should have had FBI Director Kash Patel sending agents to Minnesota months ago.
Project Veritas Caught Omar's Network Red-Handed in 2020
Back in 2020, investigative journalists at Project Veritas exposed what they called a massive ballot harvesting operation tied directly to Rep. Ilhan Omar's political machine.
Their undercover footage showed a man named Liban Mohamed bragging about having his car stuffed with hundreds of absentee ballots.
"Numbers don't lie. You can see my car is full. All these here are absentee ballots. Can't you see? Look at all these, my car is full," Mohamed said in Snapchat videos he posted himself.
Mohamed claimed to have hauled in 300 ballots in a single day for Minneapolis City Council candidate Jamal Osman, who happens to be his brother.
"Money is everything. Money is the king in this world. If you got no money, you should not be here period," Mohamed stated.
Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe said the investigation showed ballot harvesting had "become a big business" with "unscrupulous operators" exploiting "the elderly and immigrant communities."
Omar Jamal, a political insider in Minneapolis's Somali community, reached out to Project Veritas because he was fed up with what he witnessed.
"It's an open secret," he told the organization. "She will do anything that she can do to get elected and she has hundreds of people on the streets doing that."
Jamal explained how the operation actually worked.
"They come to us. They came to our homes. They said: 'This year, you will vote for Ilhan,'" he recalled. "They said: 'We will make the absentee ballots. We will fill out the forms for you and when you get them back, we will again fill it out and send it.'"
Voters weren't even filling out their own ballots.
A former political worker told Project Veritas that Omar's campaign manager Ali Isse Gainey allegedly coordinated the entire operation at Charles Horn Towers, a Minneapolis public housing complex.
Hennepin County Attorney Jeff Wojciechowski told Project Veritas on a recorded line that the conduct was "Illegal, and we will be investigating."
The investigation never seemed to go anywhere.
https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1310383750040219649
The Pattern Nobody Wanted to See
The 2020 ballot harvesting scandal fits a pattern federal prosecutors are only now fully exposing.
In 2022, the Justice Department charged 78 people in what Attorney General Merrick Garland called "the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme" at the time.
The scheme centered on a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, which claimed to provide meals to needy children during COVID-19.
Defendants allegedly stole $250 million in taxpayer funds and spent it on luxury cars, waterfront properties, and real estate in Kenya and Turkey.
More than 60 people have been convicted, with the vast majority being Somali Americans.
But the fraud didn't end there.
Prosecutors uncovered parallel schemes draining Minnesota's autism therapy budgets, emergency housing funds, and Medicaid programs.
The autism program saw costs jump from $1 million in 2017 to $220 million in 2024, with investigators now calling most of that increase fraudulent.
The housing stabilization program burned through $302 million when the budget called for $12 million.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said fraud accounted for most of that $300 million.
Add it all up and you're looking at over $800 million stolen, possibly reaching into the billions.
The ballot harvesting allegations become more damning when you see the full scope.
The same community leaders, the same organizational structures, the same willingness to exploit government programs.
Nick Shirley's Investigation Connects the Dots
In December 2025, YouTuber Nick Shirley published a video alleging widespread fraud at Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota.
He visited facilities that appeared empty with no signs of actually caring for children.
Public records showed these centers had collectively received over $110 million in taxpayer funds.
One center had a misspelled sign reading "Greater Learing Center."
The video racked up over 135 million views on Twitter and 3 million on YouTube.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced his agency would "surge agents" to Minnesota to investigate.
"This is just the tip of a very large iceberg," Patel wrote.
Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed the Justice Department had already charged 98 individuals in Minnesota fraud cases, with 85 of Somali descent.
"We have more prosecutions coming," Bondi warned. "Buckle up, lawmakers!"
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE deployed massive resources to Minneapolis.
Federal authorities froze all childcare funding to Minnesota.
The Small Business Administration suspended $430 million in suspected PPP fraud in the state.
Now look at the timeline.
Documented ballot harvesting in 2020 that was never properly prosecuted.
Then $250 million stolen through Feeding Our Future with 60+ convictions.
Hundreds of millions more drained from autism, housing, and Medicaid programs.
And now daycare centers pulling in massive government payments while appearing to serve few or no children.
All happening in the same Minneapolis Somali community with similar patterns of fake documentation and phantom clients.
Why This Should Terrify Every American
The ballot harvesting operation Omar's network allegedly ran in 2020 wasn't just about collecting extra votes.
It was about systematically undermining election integrity in a major American city.
When Omar Jamal warned the operation was "already too big to stop," he was describing an organized criminal enterprise masquerading as political activism.
Many of the targeted immigrants didn't speak English well enough to know what they were signing.
That's exploitation of vulnerable people for political power.
Minnesota officials knew about problems with Feeding Our Future as early as 2020 but backed off after the nonprofit accused them of racial discrimination.
The same playbook every time.
Commit fraud, then accuse investigators of racism.
It worked for years, allowing schemes to grow from millions into hundreds of millions.
Former U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger confirmed that fraud proceeds went overseas to Somalia, Kenya, and China.
Text messages recovered by investigators referenced sending money to "Mogadishu Bakara," a market in Somalia previously controlled by the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab.
The Treasury Department is investigating whether taxpayer dollars funded terrorism.
Ballot harvesting undermining elections, massive welfare fraud stealing from programs for needy children, and possible terrorism financing.
All connected to the same networks.
All ignored by Minnesota officials for years.
FBI Director Kash Patel clearly sees what Minnesota politicians refused to acknowledge.
The 2020 ballot harvesting allegations against Omar's operation weren't some conspiracy theory.
Project Veritas caught them red-handed, and Minnesota officials looked the other way.
Now Patel's agents are finding out the corruption goes way beyond what anyone exposed back then.
Sources:
- Gateway Pundit, "Flashback: Ilhan Omar Linked to Minnesota Ballot Harvesting Scheme," January 22, 2026.
- Project Veritas, "Ilhan Omar Connected Cash-For-Ballots Voter Fraud Scheme," September 27, 2020.
- Breitbart News, "Project Veritas Exposes Ilhan Omar Allies in Alleged Ballot Harvesting Operation," September 28, 2020.
- Fox News, "Minneapolis Police Investigating Ballot Harvesting Claims," September 29, 2020.
- CBS News, "Everything We Know About Minnesota's Massive Fraud Schemes," January 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, "78th Defendant Charged in Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme," November 24, 2025.
- Fox News, "Feds Launch 'Massive' Investigation After Viral Video Alleges Minnesota Daycare Fraud," December 2025.
- CNN, "Federal Payment Freeze Puts Some Minnesota Families in Danger," December 29, 2025.
