Source: Fox News · 2026-09-16 · Original article ↗

AG Blanche unveils federal charges against 160 defendants in pandemic relief sweep

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One hundred sixty arrests. Two hundred forty-five million. Twelve daycares that billed kids who were not there.

Summary

  • Fox News reports Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the Rose Garden that from mid-June through September, federal prosecutors charged 160 defendants in COVID-era fraud, including about 80 new cases in Missouri and neighboring states, with more than $245 million in alleged losses.
  • Southern California prosecutors the same day charged 12 defendants who ran at-home childcare sites and collected more than $10 million in government childcare payments with few or no children attending. All 12 are naturalized citizens from Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia.
  • Prosecutors said some defendants were not even in the United States when they billed. Turkiya Alawad, 63, was outside the country from January 1 to January 30, 2024, yet still submitted and collected childcare payments for those dates, according to charging details reported via AP.
  • Fox, citing AP, said the California daycare case is larger than Minnesota's Feeding Our Future Child Care Assistance claims of about $4.6 million. Vice President JD Vance chairs the administration fraud task force that Blanche said has driven arrests nationwide.

Commentary

A shop dad still smells motor oil on a lunch bag and knows a daycare check is supposed to buy a crib, not a ghost roster. He did not pay the levy so a house with no kids could draw $10 million.

160 defendants. $245 million. A woman billing January from overseas. The honest household already paid the payroll tax. The linoleum in that empty playroom still waits.

Look every working father who still writes a childcare co-pay in the eye and answer this: if a house with no children can cash a federal check, who still owns the next subsidy that never met a kid?

Comments

If the playroom was empty, why did the federal check still clear?
u/border_dad · 5h

160 charged. $245 million. 12 daycares. Keep that order.

u/midwest_vet · 4h

I stood a line so a benefit still meant a child in a chair. A ghost roster is not care.

u/rule_first · 4h

Blanche. Alawad. $10 million. Feeding Our Future $4.6 million. Print the four.

u/tokyo_ally · 3h

Allied treasuries still treat an empty classroom as fraud, not a cultural program.

u/docket_rat · 3h

Mid-June to September. Missouri cluster. California twelve. File the map.

u/night_shift · 2h

I still pay the tax after a graveyard shift. I want the next check tied to a real kid.

u/texas_mom · 90m

A billed child who was never there is not a paperwork error. It is a warning the street already paid.

u/gulf_watch · 55m

A subsidy paid from overseas is a second border around a Treasury window.

u/press_clip · 30m

Fox printed 160, $245 million, and the empty daycares. Argue those nouns.

u/soc_lead · 15m

Charge the roster. Claw the money. A crib that never existed is not a program.

Paraphrased comments. Not attributed.

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