The schemes of running fake daycare centers and healthcare offices to rip off taxpayers in the U.S. and Scandinavia show an eerie similarity. More than one billion Swedish kronor (€92.4 million) in taxpayer funds intended for preschools and schools have been siphoned off through an Islamist-affiliated welfare fraud network in Sweden. One of the most prominent cases of fraud involves a Gothenburg school that received 462 million kronor in public funding.
Somali-Swedish former MP Abdirizik Waberi served as principal and was convicted of siphoning off 12 million kronor (€1.11 million) through fake invoices. Large sums were sent to Waberi’s Islamist party in Somalia, while other funds were used for private purchases, including Thai sex clubs, political party membership fees, and trips to luxury hotels in Southeast Asia and Kenya. The owner of another Gothenburg school, which employed former Islamic State terrorists who had returned to Sweden, also stole millions of kronor, transferring the money to Malta before disappearing.
Somali immigrants have abused the Western welfare system elsewhere too. The same scheme of siphoning public funds intended for childcare has been used in Minnesota, with U.S. federal authorities launching a high-profile review of alleged fraud involving centers run by Somali immigrants.