Minnesota daycare owner charged with fraud after alleged flight attempt

Federal fraud charges were unsealed Wednesday against a Minnesota daycare owner who prosecutors say tried to leave the country two days after closing her center.

Federal prosecutors said Future Leaders Early Learning, a site sponsored by Feeding Our Future, claimed to feed children during the pandemic but kept much of the money instead.

Fahima Mahamud, the daycare's owner, was charged with one count each of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States through Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday. Mahamud is currently under house arrest.

She is accused of stealing taxpayer money meant to help families feed their children. Prosecutors say her center at one point claimed to serve 60,000 children a month and submitted falsified invoices for reimbursement.

Between January and July 2021, her daycare center received more than $850,000 in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds directly from Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit at the center of what federal authorities have called a $250 million fraud scandal. Only a fraction of the money was used to buy food, according to the indictment.

In 2020 and 2021, Mahamud submitted receipts claiming to have served two meals a day to 1,000 different children seven days a week, the court documents state.

From 2022 to 2025, Mahamud submitted roughly 13,000 claims for $4.6 million in reimbursements through CCAP on behalf of recipients from whom co-payments were not collected as required, the indictment alleges.

The Future Leaders Early Learning Center was one of 10 Minneapolis daycares visited by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley in December and featured in a viral video. State license investigators had also visited the site on Nov. 10, 2025, and issued a citation for the space not being clean and children's files not containing immunization documentation.

In February, Mahamud notified the state that Future Leaders Early Learning was closing. That same day, prosecutors say she booked a flight to London.

In April, at least 20 Minnesota daycares and autism centers were raided by federal agents. It is unclear if Future Leaders Early Learning Center was one of them.