Well surprise, surprise, surprise:
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Feds Charge 12 San Diego-Area Residents in Alleged $10 Million Fraud Scheme
The “Dirty Dozen” turned a taxpayer-funded childcare program for low-income families into an alleged multimillion-dollar cash machine.
Federal prosecutors say a dozen San Diego County residents turned a taxpayer-funded childcare program for low-income families into an alleged multimillion-dollar cash machine.
The indictment alleges more than $10 million was siphoned through falsified attendance records, including claims submitted while purported providers were outside the country.
The defendants, who all reside in either San Diego or El Cajon, were arrested last Thursday for allegedly falsifying monthly attendance records required to receive federal funds to pay for childcare.
Though the defendants claimed in those documents to be caring for children on specific dates, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges those claims were disproved by surveillance footage or other documentation showing the purported providers were not even in the country on those dates.
One such example highlighted by prosecutors involved a man who claimed to care for as many as 25 children every day for two straight months, though surveillance recordings showed only one day during that time period in which children were present. On that day, a state inspector made an unannounced visit to the home, but no one was present, and less than 30 minutes later, the defendant and children arrived at the home, prosecutors allege.
Other defendants were caring for far fewer children than they claimed in the attendance records, according to court documents.
According to a complaint against Turkiya Mamdouh Alawad, border records show she left the country around Jan. 1, 2024, and returned around Jan. 30.
Yet she allegedly submitted January attendance records and subsequently received eight CDA and YMCA deposits totaling $14,970.
The alleged profits were enormous.
Each defendant reportedly collected between $538,000 and $1.2 million over periods ranging from months to years.
Alawad allegedly received more than $300,000 in 2025 alone, while several defendants allegedly collected more than $1 million each.
It’s no wonder that last month California’s Democrats passed, and Governor Newsom signed into law the Stop Nick Shirley Act — his fraud investigations were inspiring others to do the same.
“I saw what Nick Shirley was doing in Minnesota with the ghost daycare fraud, I’m a state licensed private investigator, I started inspecting the state records for daycares here and we came up with the dirty dozen,” Reichert said.
