OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
1:51 PM – Thursday, September 17, 2026
12 foreign-born residents living in San Diego are now facing federal fraud charges in connection with a scheme that funneled more than $10 million meant for low-income families in need of childcare into fake daycare centers, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California announced a “coordinated takedown” last Thursday in which more than 250 federal, state and local law enforcement officials arrested all 12 suspects after executing 12 search warrants at their homes in San Diego, California.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides federal funding to help low-income families pay for childcare. In San Diego County, this is distributed and administered by Child Development Associates (CDA) and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).
The DOJ says that the defendants obtained a California license to operate a home childcare facility registered with CDA and the YMCA to provide subsidized childcare to low-income families. They were required to submit monthly attendance records with the dates and times they cared for each child to receive government funding from the two groups.
Instead, the defendants submitted false attendance records and falsely certified, under penalty of perjury, that the information was accurate.
All 12 defendants are naturalized U.S. citizens or green card holders who originally immigrated to the United States from countries including Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Federal officials noted that “nine of the defendants initially came to the U.S. seeking refugee status.”
“Anyone who steals from programs meant to support children will face swift and uncompromising accountability,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “Fraud against these programs is an attack on vulnerable families, and law enforcement will continue to dismantle schemes that exploit them.”
“Today is a bad day for home daycare fraud,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said. “These are the first charges alleging this type of fraud since the formation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. These fraudsters may have criminally gamed the system before. But today, the game is over.”
The DOJ identified the 12 defendants as follows:
- Fosiya Mohamoud, 50, of El Cajon;
- Abdulrahman Alawad, 25, of El Cajon;
- Zetun Abdi, 43, of San Diego;
- Ikramullah Mohmmand, 25, of El Cajon;
- Khetam Haoash, 37, of El Cajon;
- Khatera Hashimi, 39, of El Cajon;
- Mariam Khamis, 42, of San Diego;
- Mohamad Alawad, 29, of San Diego;
- Mazin Alawad, 22, of San Diego;
- Turkiya Alawad, 63, of San Diego;
- Zaryab Daudzai, 25, of El Cajon;
- Cezar Yaqoob, 36, of El Cajon.
The 12 federal criminal complaints said that surveillance recordings of the defendants’ facilities conflicted with their attendance records.
Abdulrahman Alawad, for example, claimed to have looked after 23 children every day in March and 25 every day in April, but surveillance recordings covering 57 days in that period showed children entering or exiting Alawad’s facility on only one day — which was coincidentally the day a state inspector conducted an inspection of the facility.
Several defendants’ records also claimed they provided childcare at times when they were not even in the United States, according to border crossing records. Turkiya Alawad’s border crossing records showed that she departed the U.S. on or about January 1, 2024, and returned around January 30, 2024, but she still submitted attendance records, earning her eight direct deposits from CDA and YMCA that totaled $14,970.00
The complaints indicate that each defendant gained “between $538,000 and $1.2 million during various time periods that range from months to years.”
“By following the money, [Internal Revenue Service] IRS Criminal Investigation uncovered patterns of deceit that revealed twelve ghost daycare operations billing for children who were never present. This was not a victimless crime. It deprived working parents of critical support and eroded trust in programs meant to protect the most vulnerable in our communities,” IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jarod Koopman stated.
All 12 are facing federal charges consisting primarily of:
- Wire Fraud: According to prosecutors, the defendants knowingly submitted false monthly attendance records, logs, and certifications (under penalty of perjury) electronically to the CDA and the YMCA to collect government childcare subsidies for children who were not actually present.
- Money Laundering: Federal agents say that the proceeds from the fraudulent claims were laundered using large cash withdrawals, international wire transfers and purchases of personal luxury goods and real estate.
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