Daycare Owner Faces New Fraud Charges
Federal prosecutors say a Minneapolis daycare owner already tied to the massive Feeding Our Future case has now been charged in a separate fraud scheme involving child care assistance money.
Fahima Egeh Mahamud was charged Wednesday with wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to court documents. Authorities say the new case involves false claims made through the Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP, which helps low-income families pay for daycare.
Prosecutors say Mahamud served as CEO of Future Leaders Early Learning, a Minneapolis daycare center, and submitted more than 13,000 fraudulent claims between October 2022 and December 2025. The total, they say, came to about $4.6 million. The alleged problem was simple: she supposedly certified that mandatory family co-payments had been collected when they had not.
The new charges add another layer to a wider fraud scandal that has already rocked Minnesota. Earlier this year, Mahamud was indicted for her alleged role in the initial $250 million Feeding Our Future scheme. In that case, prosecutors say she enrolled the daycare in a federal child nutrition program and falsely claimed to serve thousands of meals.
Her daycare center also became part of a viral video by influencer Nick Shirley, who visited what he described as apparently empty childcare centers in and around Minneapolis. FOX 9 Minneapolis reported that the video featured Future Leaders Early Learning and that it helped trigger a fast federal response.
After the video spread, the Trump administration moved hard. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services froze roughly $185 million in federal childcare funding to Minnesota. Federal agents also ramped up activity in the Twin Cities, with more than 2,000 personnel from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection deployed to support the investigations and enforcement efforts.
The case has become a major flashpoint in Minnesota, where state and federal officials are now under heavy pressure to explain how the fraud got so far out of control. Prosecutors say the allegations point to a pattern of abuse across multiple programs, all tied to public money meant to help children and families.
Mahamud has not been convicted of the charges. The allegations will now move through the federal court system as investigators continue to dig into the broader network surrounding the daycare and nutrition program cases.