Minnesota daycare owner pleads guilty to 2 fraud charges

A Minnesota daycare owner who prosecutors said tried to flee the United States two days after shutting her center down pleaded guilty to fraud charges on Thursday.

Fahima Mahamud pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to court records. 

Prosecutors said Mahamud ran Future Leaders Early Learning and pocketed money meant to feed children during the pandemic. Charges said she received more than $850,000 in fraudulent funds as part of the Feeding Our Future scheme, using most of that money to buy real estate. She also filed separate claims for about $4.6 million from the federal Child Care Assistance Program, according to the Department of Justice.

Mahamud notified the state in February that Future Leaders was closing. That same day, she booked a flight to London, according to prosecutors. 

A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.

In May, the ringleader of the Feeding Our Future scheme, Aimee Bock, was sentenced to more than 41 years in prison. She has appealed her conviction and sentence.

Dozens of others have been convicted in connection with what prosecutors have called the largest pandemic fraud case in the country.