Federal authorities have charged 12 individuals in California with defrauding government childcare subsidy programs of over $10 million. The charges, announced jointly by the Justice Department and the IRS’s Criminal Investigations Division, involve people who allegedly operated licensed at-home childcare facilities in Southern California. Prosecutors claim these facilities rarely or never had actual children, yet the defendants submitted attendance records to collect payments. One of the defendants, Turkiya Alawad, 63, was reportedly outside the U.S. between January 1, 2024, and January 30, 2024, but still submitted claims for childcare payments during that time. Another defendant, Abdulrahman Alawad, 25, is alleged to have received over $300,000 in payments in 2025, despite surveillance footage that allegedly shows children entered his facility only once—on the day a state inspector visited. Other defendants in the case collected over $1 million in childcare subsidy payments. This case is larger than a similar one involving a Minnesota-based organization called Feeding Our Future, which submitted about $4.6 million in claims to the childcare Assistance Program. While the Feeding Our Future case also involved fraud, it primarily focused on meal subsidy fraud rather than childcare attendance. Fahima Mahamud, 50, the operator of Feeding Our Future’s childcare facility, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges in July. Aimee Bock, the facility’s leader, was convicted and sentenced to 41 years in prison in May for fraud and conspiracy charges, though she has appealed her conviction. The IRS’s Criminal Investigations Division has been looking into these childcare facilities for several months. The Trump administration has made a priority of investigating and charging fraud in government benefit programs. Vice President JD Vance chairs the administration’s task force focused on this effort, highlighting the administration’s emphasis on accountability in public assistance programs. The California case adds to a growing number of investigations into fraudulent claims, as authorities seek to ensure that public funds are used appropriately.