Minnesota Taxpayers Lose Big On Somali-run Daycare Fraud

Since the Minnesota Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) fully-staffed their new child care fraud investigative unit in the spring of 2014, they’ve worked with the FBI to shutter daycare centers around the state.

Of the cases that have hit the news since then, all have involved Somali-run businesses.

Khadra Abdisafad Hirsi, 47, was the director and co-owner of Ace Daycare Center in Eden Prairie. In February, Hirsi pleaded guilty to knowingly submitting fraudulent claims to the state of Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program. From November of 2011-May of 2013, Hrisi inflated the number of children using her daycare’s services and fraudulently obtained $300,000 in payments from the state of Minnesota and the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services. Earlier this month Hirsi was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison and ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution.

Hirsi, who also goes by the name of Khadra Duale, was employed by the City of Eden Prairie as a part-time community services technician, also known as the immigrant liaison, from October 2003-September 2011, she was also part-time staff at the Eden Prairie community center. Hirsi was paid $284,944 in salary and $35,806 in health and dental benefits by the city during that time. She co-owned the Ace Daycare in Eden Prairie with her husband Mohamed F. Arab, although there were no charges against him. The Eden Prairie news called Hirsi and her husband “leaders in the Somali community” in a 2009 video interview featuring the couple.

They filed for bankruptcy this summer according to public records.

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