A decade-old playbook of fraud, buried by bureaucratic inaction and political indifference, has surfaced in Minnesota, where Somali-owned daycare centers stand accused of systematically bilking taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. However, this is not a recent occurrence. The fraud schemes were first exposed in 2013. The recent viral investigation by YouTube journalist Nick Shirley exposed numerous instances of fraud involving visits to vacant, and sometimes non-existent, childcare centers that were receiving millions of dollars in aid from the Department of Human Services in Minnesota. One of those visited and highlighted in the video was the “Quality Learning Center” located in a building at 1411 Nicollett Ave in Minneapolis. Both the “Learning” and “Nicollett” on the building’s exterior were misspelled, and the door was locked during operating hours.
The full story stretches back over two decades, to 2005. On March 3, 2005 the Salaama Daycare was opened at 3201 Clinton Ave in Minneapolis by Ardo Sheikyusuf Diriye. It was opened in an inauspicious apartment #2 with a listed capacity of 13 children. This apartment had been occupied Diriye’s daughter and himself. They both moved out, and Diriye moved to an adjacent apartment #3. In 2008, the name was changed to Salama Daycare at the same address and with the same agent. Shortly after this, on January 1, 2009, a new daycare was opened under the name Salama Child Care Center with a stated capacity of 60 children at the 1411 Nicollett Ave address, with Fozia Ali as the owner and Ardo Diriye as the new agent and manager. It is unclear how long the previous Salama Daycare continued to operate or if it closed and transferred its clients to the new location.
The new Salama Child Care Center operated from 2009 to 2013, when a Ramsey County forensic auditor uncovered four daycare centers exploiting Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). There were dozens more suspicious cases totaling over $100 million in fraud. One of these was Salama Child Center. The auditor repeatedly alerted the Department of Human Services (DHS) and state lawmakers. His reports were ignored for years, and no investigation was ever conducted. He became a whistleblower in 2013 and spoke to reporters under the condition of anonymity. His identity was revealed, and he was punished and eventually lost his job. But some investigations were finally begun, and one of them, ironically, traces back to this same building and the individuals involved with Quality Learning Center.
In 2013, Fozia Sheik Ali operated the Salama Child Care Center located at 1411 Nicollett Ave in Minneapolis. The center had been operating since December 28, 2009. Fozia Ali was the founder and the licensed owner of the center; the CEO and agent was Ardo Sheikhyusuf Diriye. Diriye’s daughter, Farah Adid, was listed as the director of operations. It had a listed capacity of 60 children.
The Salama Child Care Center, which was first licensed in 2009 to serve up to 60 children, including infants and toddlers, has a history of regulatory problems with the state. Since 2011, the center had been issued three correction orders for various child-safety and record violations, according to state records. In a 2011 inspection, for instance, DHS officials found children were not properly supervised; meals did not meet minimum daily nutritional guidelines; and children were exposed to multiple hazards, including electrical cords and a hot steam table. In 2013, DHS cited the center for failing to keep basic information in children’s files and for failing to keep documentation showing that six staff received training in shaken baby syndrome before caring for children under school age, according to state records.
In addition, the Salama Child Care Center in St. Cloud, an affiliate of the Minneapolis center, had its license revoked in June 2013 for “serious and chronic violations of licensing standards,” including substantiated neglect of a child, according to DHS. State investigators found that a 4-year-old child had wandered from the facility to the parking lot of a nearby dry cleaner, where a customer almost hit the child with a car. Staff thought the toddler was sleeping and did not realize the child was missing for one and a half hours, according to state records
Starting in 2014, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) conducted a lengthy investigation. This concluded with a raid on May 4, 2015. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was also part of the probe. As the raid was conducted, the visitors’ lobby filled with children and their parents, who insisted they knew nothing of the fraudulent operation. This was later shown to be untrue; many of the parents were complicit in the fraud. After the raid, the daycare center’s license was revoked. On paper, the operation was shut down. Salama Child Care Center was officially closed on May 15, 2015. The license was revoked on December 15, 2015. The building was empty, but not for long.
On January 27, 2017, almost two years later, an indictment was filed in the US District Court in Minneapolis charging Fozia Sheikh Ali with fraud. No one else affiliated with the daycare was charged. The indictment charged that, between December 2013 and May 2015, Ali defrauded the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) by obtaining payments from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) for childcare services that were not actually provided. Ali had submitted claims for CCAP payments that overstated the number of children who actually attended and received day care services from Salama. Ali had asserted that more than 100 children attended at times and received childcare at Salama on many days. Children who were observed entering and leaving the facility were charged for a full day’s attendance. On numerous occasions, the number of children Salama claimed were attending was highly inflated, by more than 400 percent on some days, including days when the daycare was closed. During one two-month period, Ali billed charges for children at the daycare from Kenya, where she was vacationing in an $800-per-night luxury hotel. In June 2016, Ardo Diriye was cited and fined $10,830 by the state for not having workers’ compensation insurance for his employees between 2009 and 2013. During the period from 2013 to 2105, Ali stole at least $1.5 million from the State of Minnesota and the federal government through the CCAP program.
On January 18, 2018, Fozia Sheikh Ali pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting theft of public money, foregoing a trial. She was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment at a federal institution, followed by 2 years supervised release. In addition, she was ordered to pay restitution of $1,449,105.67. No interest would be charged on the remaining balance. Restitution payments began while in prison, but would not exceed $50 per month. Payments would continue after release and would be no less than $25 per month or 50% of earnings if working. At these rates, restitution could take a very long time. On March 6, 2018, Fozia Ali entered prison. She would be released in late 2019.
As part of her punishment, Fozia Ali was prohibited from incurring any new credit charges or opening lines of credit during her probationary period without permission. She was also permanently prohibited from engaging in self-employment in any field subsidized by public funds. Fozia Ali’s daycare operation days were behind her-but not for her family.
The building at 1411 Nicollett Ave in Minneapolis had been occupied by the Salama Child Care Center from December 2009 until May 2015. During that period, the building was owned by Waldon Properties LLC of Eden Prairie. When the childcare center closed, the building was mostly unoccupied. On September 15, 2015, four months after the closure, the building was sold for $1.65 million, on a contract for deed to Nura Sheikh Ali, a 25-year-old apartment resident in Washington, DC. The contract called for $10,000-dollar monthly payments with a balloon payment due on March 18, 2022, to pay off the remaining balance. Until the contract was paid and satisfied, Waldon Properties LLC remained the legal owner of the property.
Just before the daycare raid, in February, 2015, Fardowsa Sheikh Ali joined Nabil Property LLC as a co-owner and agent. Her partner in Nabil was Abdideeq Imankey, who founded Nabil Property in 2009. Nabil Property had managed a building at 3600 Nicollett Ave, and Imankey was listed as the operator of the Hooyo Child Care Center, located in the building. Hooyo had been operating at the property since 2009. On July 8, 2018, Imankey also purchased the building on a contract for deed.
In October 2017, five months before Fozia Sheikh Ali, age 50, entered prison, Fardowsa Sheikh Ali was issued a new childcare license at the same address, this time under a new name: Quality Learning Center. Ibrahim Sheikh Ali, Farodowsa’s son, became the manager. To the casual observer, it looked like a fresh start; to critics, it looked like history repeating itself.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Quality Learning Center received a PPP loan of $108,673, meant to help small businesses keep workers on payroll. The loan was fully forgiven in 2022. The center reported having 21 employees. While PPP loans were widely distributed, the forgiveness of public funds tied to a location with a documented fraud history should have raised concerns. It didn’t.
Fozia Sheikh Ali was released from prison in October 2019 and quickly satisfied the $1.49 million judgment against her. Banned from further involvement in any business that received government assistance, Fozia retired to an upscale apartment in Brookly Park.
But Fordawsa Ali was “moving on up”. In April 2021, Fardowsa Ali and Abdideeq Imankey purchased a large, suburban, single-family house at 9469 Olympia Drive in Eden Prairie, MN, for $825,000. This address would become the home address of their various limited liability companies in the future. It was also declared as their homestead residence. They retained ownership of a house at 4456 Portland Ave, Minneapolis, at which both she and Imankey had resided at various times. That was also the business address for Nabil Property and the Hooyo Child Care Center.
In the summer of 2025, Fardowsa Ali opened a new restaurant, the Albi Market Kitchen, occupying over one-third of the daycare facility. Ali created a new corporation, Fardowsa Unique Corporation, which controlled the restaurant property. This would be Fardowsa’s first and only venture into private business with no direct government subsidy. However, it was planned to have the restaurant provide food for the adjoining daycare facility.
From 2009 to 2015 and 2017 to 2025 the building at 1411 Nicollett operated as a daycare center. Since 2019 it had received over $7.8 million dollars in CCAP funds from the Department of Human Services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Quality Learning Center received a PPP loan of $108,673, meant to help small businesses keep workers on payroll. The loan was fully forgiven in 2022. The center reported having 21 employees. While PPP loans were widely distributed, the forgiveness of public funds tied to a location with a documented fraud history raised eyebrows among watchdogs and community members.
Public records and statements from the center’s current management show that the property is still owned by the same family connected to the earlier operation. The current manager has openly said that his parents own the business, directly linking the new center to the family involved in the 2015 case. The name changed; the address did not. Neither did the ownership. In fact, the operation prospered. It went from operating childcare centers to owning the buildings in which they operated. The proceeds from continuing the fraud paid for the buildings and the restitution to the state. On January 8, 2026, the Quality Learning Center was closed. The Hooyo Child Care Center is still in operation. Questions linger about oversight, accountability, and how a shuttered daycare tied to federal fraud was able to return under a new name and continue operation. No new fraud charges have been filed.