Chris Nesi writes for the New York Post about an interesting development in the campaign to expose welfare fraud in Minnesota. A viral video ended up highlighting a confirmed multimillion-dollar scam.
A Minnesota daycare center owner featured in YouTuber Nick Shirley’s viral video showcasing alleged bogus childcare facilities has admitted that she defrauded the US government out of millions of dollars — which she used, in part, to buy up real estate.
Fahima Mahamud, CEO of Future Leaders Early Learning Center in Minneapolis — which was featured in Shirley’s December video round-up of questionable facilities around the Twin Cities — pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the US.
According to prosecutors, between October 2022 and November 2025, Mahamud filed claims for more than $4.6 million from the Child Care Assistance Program — a federal program that provides daycare assistance for low-income families — on behalf of recipients who never paid the required co-payment.
According to prosecutors, Future Leaders also received over $850,000 between January and July 2021 through Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota food program that bilked taxpayers out of $250 million and led to charges against 79 individuals involved in the fraud, many of them of Somali descent.
Mahamud used most of the money to purchase real estate, according to an affidavit.
Prosecutors said Mahamud claimed to serve tens of thousands of meals to hungry children at the center each month, but actually “served only a fraction of those claimed meals,” court documents state.
She closed down Future Leaders in February — and tried to flee the US for London two days later.
Mahamud’s sentencing date has not been set.
Aimee Bock, the mastermind behind the scheme, was handed a stunning four-decade prison sentence in May for helming what prosecutors called one of the largest pandemic-era fraud schemes in the country.
