St. Cloud day care owner accused of fraud
A St. Cloud day care owner faces felony charges that he overbilled the state for child care assistance.
Abdi Ali Mohamud, owner of Moon Light Daycare, was charged this week in Stearns County District Court with six felony counts of theft by swindle and wrongfully obtaining child care subsidies.
According to the criminal complaint, the Minnesota Department of Human Services and Stearns County began investigating in 2014 after discovering an unusually high percentage of parents whose children attended Moon Light Daycare were also employed there.
The complaint states that over three years, an investigation by DHS, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the St. Cloud Police Department found Moon Light was overbilling the state's child care assistance program by falsely recording the number of children attending the day care.
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The complaint states Mohamud, 45, told investigators he was the only one in charge of billing. He is scheduled to appear in court on August 21.
In a statement, DHS Inspector General Carolyn Ham called the fraud charges "very troubling, especially when so many families need child care assistance and are not able to access it."
Ham said DHS will continue to work with law enforcement to pursue criminal prosecutions in cases of suspected fraud.
Earlier this year, the Legislature allocated funding for additional staff that will allow DHS to expand its investigative units for child care and Medical Assistance fraud.