As part of ongoing efforts to crack down on fraud nationwide, the Department of Justice has charged twelve immigrants for running fraudulent daycare schemes.

These immigrants were originally from Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Iraq.

In total, they defrauded American taxpayers out of over $10 million meant to assist low-income families with affording childcare.

Watch Attorney General Todd Blanche announce the charges here:

Law enforcement uncovered these fraud cases by examining records and video surveillance showing that there were no kids at these so-called “daycares!”

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In fact, children only magically showed up on the day that a state inspector was sent in to visit.

A DOJ press release has more information on how these types of schemes work:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides federal funding to California to help low-income families pay for childcare. In San Diego County, the County of San Diego, Child Development Associates (CDA), and the YMCA administer childcare subsidy programs.

When CDA or the YMCA determines that a family qualifies for subsidized childcare, the organizations pay the eligible childcare provider directly after the provider submits required monthly attendance records documenting the care provided. The records must be signed by both the provider and parent under penalty of perjury and include the dates and times children are in care.

California law also requires licensed childcare providers to be present and ensure that children are supervised at all times, except for limited temporary absences when a qualified substitute is present.

While the 12 federal complaints are unrelated, the scheme was essentially the same: Defendants obtained a California license to operate a home childcare facility and registered with Child Development Associates (CDA) and the YMCA to provide subsidized childcare to eligible families. To receive government-funded payments, the defendants were required to submit monthly attendance records accurately documenting the dates and times they provided care to each child.

Instead, the defendants knowingly submitted false attendance records claiming they provided childcare on dates and at times when they did not. They also falsely certified, under penalty of perjury, that the information was true and correct. CDA and the YMCA relied on those fraudulent records and issued payments with federal funds intended to pay for childcare actually provided to low-income families.

The complaints describe how surveillance recordings of the defendants’ licensed facilities conflicted with what the defendants claimed in their attendance records. For example, Abdulrahman Ayman Alawad submitted attendance records claiming to have provided childcare to 23 children in March 2026 and 25 children April 2026, and that he provided childcare every day of those two months. But surveillance recordings covering 57 days of those months showed children entering or exiting Mr. Alawad’s facility on just one day — coincidentally, the day a state inspector showed up for an unannounced inspection, when children and Mr. Alawad himself arrived at the facility after the inspector arrived.

Additionally, Mr. Alawad and several other defendants submitted attendance records claiming to have provided childcare at their homes when border crossing records shows they were not even in the United States. For example, according to a complaint charging Turkiya Mamdouh Alawad, border crossing records show that she departed the United States on or about on Jan. 1, 2024, and returned to the United States around Jan. 30, 2024. Despite not being in the United States, Alawad submitted attendance records to CDA and YMCA for the month of January 2024 and afterwards received eight direct deposits from CDA and YMCA that totaled $14,970.00 in February 2024.

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This daycare scam is lucrative, the complaints indicate. Each defendant brought in between $538,000 and $1.2 million during various time periods that range from months to years. According to the complaints, Mr. Alawad received over $300,000 in payments from San Diego County, CDA, and YMCA in 2025 alone, and several defendants have each received over $1 million in payments in the course of their respective schemes.

Eric Daugherty listed the names of all twelve foreign fraudsters arrested in connection with the scheme:

OMG. 100% of the fraudsters charged today in California for “ghost daycares” stealing $10M are MIDDLE EASTERN FOREIGNERS

Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan

NOT ONE NATIVE-BORN AMERICAN NAME IN THE ENTIRE LIST!!

DOJ dropped the full list of 12:

Fosiya Mohamoud, Somalia
Abdulrahman Alawad, Syria
Zetun Abdi, Somalia
Ikramullah Mohmmand, Afghanistan
Khetam Haouash, Syria
Khatera Hashimi, Afghanistan
Mariam Khamis, Sudan
Mohamad Alawad, Syria
Mazin Alawad, Syria
Turkiya Alawad, Syria
Zaryab Daudzai, Afghanistan
Cezar Yaqoob, Iraq

Charges include wire fraud and money laundering. Basically all of them engaged in the same scheme of operating a childcare in Gavin Newsom’s CA to take taxpayer funds

They submitted FAKE attendance records to take the money!

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Sounds exactly like the kind of theft exposed by @nickshirleyy. DEPORT THE PIRATES!

Independent journalist Nick Shirley — who regularly exposes these types of daycare fraud schemes in his videos — replied to the news:

It’s safe to say that Nick Shirley has now been vindicated!

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This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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