A dozen operators of allegedly fake daycare sites in Southern California were arrested last week on suspicion of stealing an estimated $10 million in funding, Justice Department officials announced Sept. 15.
On Thursday, federal agents swarmed the San Diego-area homes listed as daycares by the operators and arrested the suspects, six males and six females.
Nine of the defendants entered the United States as refugees or asylum seekers from Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, according to court records. Eleven have since become naturalized citizens, according to Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division.
“There were no children. There were no daycares. These daycares were fake and the taxpayers were paying for all of it,” McDonald said during a press conference. …