The first defendants have pled guilty since daycare fraud became a hot topic in Minnesota. This includes the woman who earned more taxpayer money than any other childcare provider in 2025.
Fahima Mahamud was detained in February after closing her daycare and booking a flight to London.
Since 2015, the 50-year-old has been running the Future Leaders Early Learning Center. That daycare received $3.7 million in childcare assistance program funds last year, more than any other daycare in the state.
Mahamud pled guilty on Thursday to $4.6 million in childcare fraud and an additional $850,000 in Feeding Our Future food program fraud.
The government did not accuse her of inflating attendance figures. Instead, she claimed that she did not collect the appropriate copay amounts from the families she recruited, likely to keep them enrolled in free childcare while she pocketed taxpayer funds. The government believes that all of the taxpayer money she got from these families, $4.6 million, must be returned.a
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