A 60-year-old Pendleton woman is facing federal charges after prosecutors say she siphoned more than $359,000 from government childcare programs by paying parents to lie about their children's attendance at three Indianapolis daycare facilities she ran between 2017 and 2024. Sharon Jackson has agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of failure to file an individual income tax return, according to court documents.
Jackson operated Little Angels of Precious Hearts, Precious Hearts of Solid Rock, and Greater St. Mark Five Star Ministry, all in Indianapolis starting in 2017, according to WISH-TV. Prosecutors say she received $359,083.60 in Child Care and Development Fund payments to which she was not entitled — money the CCDF program is designed to provide as childcare assistance to eligible low-income families while parents work, attend training, or pursue education.
How the Attendance Scheme Allegedly Worked
Court documents describe a scheme in which Jackson reached agreements with several parents to falsely report their children's attendance, then paid those parents a portion of the CCDF money she received in return. Some payments moved electronically through Cash App, while others were delivered the old-fashioned way — Jackson allegedly left cash hidden inside building rain gutters outside her facilities for parents to retrieve, according to federal charging documents cited by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Indiana.
To pull off the false reporting, Jackson allegedly used Hoosier Works Child Care cards assigned to parents to record attendance and submitted attendance information — including CCDF voucher numbers, zip codes, and attendance details — through a telephone system. Federal authorities note that childcare providers are strictly prohibited from possessing those swiping cards or any attendance-recording information belonging to parents, a safeguard built into Indiana's CCDF guidelines specifically to prevent providers from billing themselves.
Fake Food Invoices Targeted a Second Program
Jackson is also accused of exploiting the USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program, which reimburses participating childcare providers for eligible food expenses tied to enrolled children. Prosecutors say she submitted CACFP reimbursement claims for meals that were never actually provided to children, and created food-vendor invoices showing purchases of food that never existed, using those fabricated records to pull in additional federal funds.
On the tax side, court documents show Jackson had not filed federal individual income tax returns for 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023. Prosecutors say she owed approximately $287,381.79 in federal taxes for those years — a liability that grew directly out of unreported revenue generated through the fraudulent daycare claims, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
A Seven-Year, Multi-Agency Investigation
The investigation into Jackson's daycare operations spanned 2017 through 2024 and drew on a task force that included the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, the USDA Office of Inspector General, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. U.S. Attorney Jeremy C. Wheeler thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam Eakman and Meredith Wood for their work on the case, per the same account from federal prosecutors.
The charges against Jackson fall under the Trump administration's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which focuses on fraud, waste, and abuse involving government benefit programs. The Department of Justice announced the creation of its National Fraud Enforcement Division in April 2026 to support that effort; the division investigates and prosecutes fraud against the American people, and the broader task force is chaired by Vice President JD Vance, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Indiana.
Between its establishment in March 2026 and August 2026, the task force reported identifying an estimated $230 billion in suspected federal program fraud nationwide and halting more than $56 billion in improper payments, according to the White House. Federal prosecutors in Indiana have pursued similar cases before: in 2014, an Indiana daycare owner and her husband received 42-month and 32-month federal prison sentences for submitting false attendance and meal reimbursement claims, according to Agri-Pulse.
What Happens Next
Jackson's guilty plea has not yet been formally entered and must still be accepted by the federal court. She is scheduled to make her initial court appearance on September 10.
Wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 carries a maximum statutory penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison along with fines of up to $250,000, according to legal guidance from Kenney Legal Defense. The tax charge, failure to file under 26 U.S.C. § 7203, is a federal misdemeanor carrying a maximum of one year in prison and fines up to $250,000, per the Internal Revenue Service. It remains unclear whether any of the parents who allegedly accepted kickbacks to falsify attendance records will face their own administrative sanctions or criminal charges.
