LaShane Hayes Pleads Guilty to $1.5M Child Food Program Fraud

LaShane Hayes, 44, of La Vergne, Tennessee, admitted in federal court today to orchestrating a $1.5 million fraud scheme against the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program, preying on a system meant to feed low-income children. Hayes, former director of sponsor agency All About Giving, Inc., pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud, capping a brazen scam that exploited public trust and siphoned taxpayer dollars.

The Child and Adult Care Food Program, designed to reimburse providers for meals served to vulnerable children, funnels federal funds through state agencies like the Tennessee Department of Human Services. Sponsor organizations, including Hayes’ All About Giving, are tasked with managing provider enrollment, verifying meal counts, and disbursing reimbursements. Instead, Hayes weaponized her position to fabricate claims and inflate payouts.

Between March 2015 and July 2016, Hayes submitted false monthly reimbursement requests, knowingly overstating the number of enrolled child care providers and the volume of meals served. These falsified reports tricked the state into depositing excess funds into All About Giving’s accounts—money that never reached the children it was meant to feed.

Hayes and her co-conspirators built a paper trail of lies: fake provider records, phantom children’s names, and non-existent physical addresses. They compiled bogus provider lists featuring individuals who provided no care at all. Paperwork was forged to make it appear as though claims were legitimate, all to justify the illegal inflow of federal dollars.

To further mask the fraud, Hayes issued checks to these sham providers—many of whom cashed the payments and handed a cut back to her in cash. The operation functioned like a criminal enterprise, laundering fraudulently obtained reimbursements through a network of complicit actors, stealing over $1.5 million in total.

Hayes now faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is set for April 12, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger. The case was investigated by the USDA’s Office of Inspector General and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry C. Leventis.