MINNEAPOLIS — Federal fraud charges were unsealed Wednesday against Minnesota daycare owner Fahima Mahamud, who is accused of pocketing millions of dollars in federal child nutrition and child care assistance funds. Mahamud was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States through Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program.

Prosecutors allege that Mahamud enrolled Future Leaders Early Learning into the federal Child Nutrition Program and falsely claimed to serve thousands of meals. The daycare center at one point claimed to serve 60,000 children monthly and falsified invoices to justify reimbursement, according to prosecutors. In 2020 and 2021, Mahamud submitted receipts claiming to have served two meals a day to 1,000 different children, seven days a week.

Future Leaders Early Learning was sponsored by Feeding Our Future. Between January and July of 2021, the daycare center received more than $850,000 in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds directly from Feeding Our Future, with only a fraction used to purchase food. Federal prosecutors said the center pretended to feed children during the pandemic but pocketed much of the Federal Child Nutrition Program funds, taking taxpayer money that was meant to help families feed their children.

Between October 2022 and December 2025, Mahamud submitted roughly 13,000 claims for $4.6 million in reimbursements through the Child Care Assistance Program without collecting required co-payments, prosecutors allege. Mahamud is currently under house arrest. Earlier this year, she was indicted in connection with the initial $250 million Feeding Our Future scheme, in which nearly 100 people have been charged.

The Future Leaders Early Learning Center was one of ten Minneapolis daycare centers visited by YouTuber Nick Shirley in December and featured in a video. Following the release of that video, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services froze roughly $185 million in federal childcare funding to Minnesota. On November 10, 2025, state license investigators visited the center and issued a citation for the facility not being clean and for children's files lacking immunization documentation.

In April, federal agents raided at least 20 Minnesota daycares and autism centers. Over 2,000 federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection were deployed to the Twin Cities to escalate investigations and enforcement.

The Justice Department will hold a news conference Thursday morning to announce a major law enforcement action involving fraud in Minnesota. 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, will take part.