Trump Gives Nick Shirley $10,000 as DOJ Launches Fraud Tip Program Paying Up to $30,000
President Trump handed conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley a $10,000 check Tuesday as his administration launched a $25 million program that pays Americans for reporting fraud.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance announced the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, or WHIP, in the Oval Office, CBS News reported. Trump said the rewards would “keep a lot of people honest.”
Under the Justice Department program, tipsters can receive $10,000 to $30,000 for information that leads to criminal charges in certain fraud cases.
Unlike most federal whistleblower programs, which pay only after a case is fully resolved, WHIP pays at an earlier stage. Tipsters remain eligible for larger awards through other programs.
The program covers health care fraud and fraud involving benefits run by agencies including Agriculture, Labor, HHS, HUD, Education, Veterans Affairs and the Small Business Administration.
The department said it will prioritize tips about hospice, home health care, day care and special services fraud. The Treasury Department is committing $25 million to fund it.
Shirley, the first recipient, drew national attention in December 2025 with a 42-minute video alleging that Minnesota day care centers took public money without providing care.
A woman featured in one of his videos pleaded guilty in July to wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, the Washington Post reported.
Shirley’s videos were praised and amplified by Vance, Elon Musk and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Post reported. The administration later froze Minnesota’s federal child care funding, The Verge reported.
One center in the video, Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis, closed in January after receiving $1.9 million from the state’s child care assistance program in fiscal 2025, according to CBS News.
State officials and Homeland Security agents visited some of the centers in the days after the video spread online, CBS reported.
CBS also found that, as of late December, state records showed most featured centers held active licenses, with safety citations but no recorded evidence of fraud at the time.
Critics in Minnesota have faulted Shirley’s methods, noting that state fraud investigations were already underway before he arrived and that later state visits found some centers operating “as expected,” The Verge reported.
Trump suggested even bigger rewards are possible. “If you turn somebody in and … you find $1 billion, we are giving a commission to that person of 1 percent,” he said, The Verge reported.
That figure would far exceed the program’s published $30,000 cap. The White House did not immediately explain how Shirley’s $10,000 award was calculated.
The program supports Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which Vance chairs, the Justice Department said. The department created a dedicated Fraud Division in April.
Tips can be submitted online. Under the program’s terms, awards are paid at the Justice Department’s sole discretion after criminal charges are filed.
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