Federal authorities have unveiled fraud charges against a Minnesota daycare owner, accusing her of attempting to flee the country shortly after closing her daycare facility. The allegations were made public on Wednesday.
Prosecutors claim that Future Leaders Early Learning, a daycare center affiliated with the organization Feeding Our Future, falsely reported providing meals to children during the pandemic, while diverting the funds for other uses.
Fahima Mahamud, the owner of the daycare, faces charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States via Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), according to the indictment revealed on Wednesday. Currently, Mahamud is under house arrest.
She is accused of misappropriating taxpayer funds intended to support families in feeding their children. The indictment alleges that her daycare falsely reported serving meals to as many as 60,000 children a month, using fabricated invoices to claim reimbursements.
From January to July 2021, her daycare reportedly received over $850,000 from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through Feeding Our Future—a nonprofit entangled in what federal authorities describe as a $250 million fraud scheme. The indictment suggests that only a small portion of these funds were actually spent on food.
Court documents reveal that in 2020 and 2021, Mahamud submitted fraudulent receipts, claiming her center provided two meals daily to 1,000 children, every day of the week.
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Between January and July of 2021, her daycare center received more than $850,000 in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds directly from Feeding Our Future — a nonprofit group that is at the center of what federal authorities have called a $250 million fraud scandal — but only a fraction was used to purchase food, according to an indictment obtained Wednesday.
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.
And from 2022 to 2025, Mahamud submitted roughly 13,000 claims for $4.6M 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’s unclear if Future Leaders Early Learning Center was one of them.
So far, nearly 100 people have been charged in the Feeding Our Future scheme. The Justice Department said Wednesday that it would hold a news conference Thursday morning to announce a “major law enforcement action involving fraud” in Minnesota. Among those taking part in the event would be acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
