Childcare Scammer Used Money To Buy Bentley, House In Mokena: Feds

CHICAGO — A Mokena woman who owned several Chicago-area care centers was handed a four-year sentence in federal prison for her part in scheming to fraudulently obtain more than $3.3 million in state funds designed to help low-income families afford childcare.

Aleesha McDowell, 44, owned child care providers A&A Kiddy Kollege Inc. in Calumet City, A&A Kiddy Kollege 2 in Calumet Park, and Kreative Kidz Academy Inc., Kreative Kidz Academy II Inc., and Kreative Kidz Academy III Inc. in Chicago.

McDowell used some of the millions she scammed from the State of Illinois to buy a Bentley Bentayga and a house in Mokena, prosecutors said.

From 2012 to 2020, prosecutors said McDowell schemed with directors of her centers and others to defraud the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Child Care Assistance Program by submitting applications containing materially false information, including fraudulent pay stubs and income verification letters regarding a parent’s eligibility to qualify for state subsidy payments. In many instances, McDowell or the directors falsely represented in the applications that a parent was employed by one of McDowell’s child care centers in order to satisfy IDHS’s requirement that recipients of the funds either be in school or employed and earning less than a certain income threshold, the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois said Monday.

As a result of the scheme, McDowell and her co-schemers caused IDHS to pay McDowell’s child care centers more than $3.3 million in subsidy payments for services purportedly provided to children who were not eligible to receive such benefits. McDowell spent some of the criminally derived money on a Bentley Bentayga and a house in Mokena.

McDowell was charged with 12 counts of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering. She pleaded guilty last year to the federal wire fraud charge. In addition to the prison sentence, a federal judge last month ordered McDowell to pay back $3,339,563.

Seven other defendants charged as part of the investigation also pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges.