Picture this: a YouTuber with a camera and a fake kid named “Joey” is doing more to root out taxpayer fraud than entire state governments with billion-dollar budgets. If that doesn’t tell you everything about the state of American accountability, nothing will.
Nick Shirley — the guy who blew the lid off Minnesota’s Somali daycare fraud scandal late last year — just dropped a new 40-minute video, and this time he drove west. Way west. All the way to California, where the grift apparently flows like wine in Napa Valley.
California: Where Fraud Goes to Get a Tan
Shirley’s latest investigation, released March 16, alleges more than $170 million in taxpayer fraud across California’s daycare, hospice, and adult daycare industries. The video racked up nearly 6 million views on X before the ink was dry on the first news story. And once you watch it, you’ll understand why.
He starts with the daycare scam playbook that made him famous — walking into facilities claiming to be a dad looking for care for his son “Joey.” What he finds is what you’d expect if you’ve been paying attention: buildings that look abandoned, no children in sight, and staffers who can barely explain what services they offer. Three of the daycares he visits were either falling apart, empty, or had a child on the premises saying no adults were even around.
“Whether or not it’s fraudulent, there is a lot of suspicious activity taking place,” Shirley says in the video. That’s putting it politely.
And Here’s Where It Gets Really Ugly
The daycare stuff is almost the appetizer. The main course? Hospice fraud — and it’s grotesque.
Shirley turns his attention to the hospice care industry in Los Angeles, which has seen a jaw-dropping 1,000% growth. He visits a single plaza that he says houses 15 hospice companies. Fifteen. In one plaza. Multiple offices were either empty or refused to engage when Shirley tried to sign up his “grandma” for care.
One alleged hospice owner had the nerve to tell him:
“You don’t come to buildings like this, like FBI guys, ‘we’re going to get the crooks.’”
Buddy, if the FBI were doing their job, Shirley wouldn’t have to.
Shirley claims some of these hospices may have ties to Russian-Armenian mafia members — and he couldn’t help but notice the luxury cars parked outside these supposedly charitable operations.
“It just seems like a lot of people are getting rich off the death of old people,” he said. That line lands like a sledgehammer, because it’s true.
The Adult Daycare That Daycare Forgot
Then there’s the adult daycare that allegedly pulled in $19.8 million in taxpayer money. Shirley walks in and finds… tables and chairs. No guests. A building that looks like it hasn’t seen a mop since the Obama administration, despite supposedly having access to nearly twenty million dollars. Your tax dollars bought a very expensive ghost town.
“It’s sad to think about it. Here in the United States, we are literally being defrauded by people who are taking advantage of old people, young people in daycares, disabled people with autism clinics, and no one is doing anything to stop it,” Shirley argues. “So I think it’s time we stand up to these fraudsters.”
Newsom’s Office Plays the Blame Game
Now here’s the comedy portion of the evening. Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office responded to the video — not by thanking Shirley, not by launching an investigation, but by blaming Trump.
“WOW. Nick Shirley finds potential FRAUD in DONALD TRUMP’s FEDERAL Medicare system! Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on new hospice licenses starting in 2021,” they wrote on X.
Ah yes, that moratorium. Let’s talk about it. Newsom signed Senate Bill No. 644 into law in 2021, slapping a moratorium on new hospice licenses. Sounds tough on paper. But by 2022, California’s own Acting State Auditor Michael Tilden was already waving red flags, reporting that “the State’s weak controls have created the opportunity for large-scale fraud and abuse” in the hospice sector. Los Angeles County alone saw a 1,500% rise in hospice agencies from 2010.
So Newsom’s big fix didn’t fix anything, and his team’s first instinct is to point at Washington. That’s like setting the kitchen on fire and blaming the smoke detector manufacturer.
From Minnesota to the Golden State
“Minnesota was big but California is even bigger,” Shirley says. He’s not wrong. His Minnesota investigation helped blow open a fraud network linked to Somali daycares that eventually drew federal immigration enforcement attention and sparked protests across the state. Now he’s proving the rot isn’t regional — it’s national.
Trump’s administration has been pushing hard on fraud enforcement, and stories like this are exactly why. You don’t drain a swamp by asking it nicely to evaporate. You send someone in with a camera and a backbone — and apparently that someone is a YouTuber, because the people we’re actually paying to do it are asleep at the switch.
One guy with a smartphone is outperforming entire state auditing departments. That’s not inspiring. That’s an indictment.
