Fraud in Minnesota: New charges filed related to various state programs [FULL]

In a major press conference, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson announced new criminal charges related to widespread fraud in Minnesota state Medicaid programs. The announcement, made alongside representatives from the FBI, Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, IRS Criminal Investigations, and Department of Homeland Security Investigations, detailed coordinated charges against multiple defendants accused of defrauding taxpayers through false claims.

According to FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, the charges include five new defendants in the housing stabilization services Medicaid program investigation. FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul alleges that Hassan Ahmed Hussein and Ahmed Abdi Rashim Muhammad, owners of Pristine Health LLC, enrolled in the housing stabilization program but submitted fraudulent claims for services they did not provide. The video claims they obtained more than $750,000 in Medicaid payments, which they allegedly used for international travel to London, Sydney, Istanbul, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia.

FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul further alleges that Camil Omar Salah, owner of Safe Lodgings, Inc., submitted more than $1.4 million in fraudulent Medicaid claims for housing stabilization services he never provided. According to the video, Salah allegedly fled the United States after his company received a grand jury subpoena. The creator describes this as part of what it calls “fraud tourism”—Anthony Waddle Jefferson and Lester Brown, alleged residents of Philadelphia with no Minnesota connection, reportedly traveled to the state, enrolled their companies in the housing stabilization program, and submitted over $3.5 million in fraudulent claims from Philadelphia.

In the autism services fraud scheme, FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul reports that Abni Najib Hassan Yousef, owner of Star Autism Center in St. Cloud, allegedly paid kickbacks to parents to have children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and enrolled in EIDBI services. The video claims Yousef received more than $6 million in Medicaid funds, which he allegedly used to purchase a semi-truck and send over $200,000 to Kenya.

The video notes that Asha Farra Hassan, owner of Smart Therapy LLC in Minneapolis, pleaded guilty earlier that morning. According to FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, Hassan allegedly participated in schemes to defraud both the EIDBI program and the federal child nutrition program through Feeding Our Future, receiving more than $14 million in Medicaid payments and over $450,000 in federal funds, with hundreds of thousands allegedly sent to Kenya for real estate purchases.

FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul also reports on investigation into a newer program called Integrated Community Supports (ICS), launched in 2021 to help people with disabilities live independently. According to the video, many ICS providers allegedly obtained apartments and rented them to qualified clients while billing hundreds of dollars daily without providing promised services. The creator notes explosive program growth—from $4.6 million in 2021 to over $170 million in 2024, with costs projected to reach $180 million in 2025.

The video highlights that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services identified 14 Minnesota Medicaid programs with significant fraud problems, which have cost $18 billion since 2018 and over $3.5 billion in 2024 alone. FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul reports that similar exponential growth patterns appear across housing stabilization services (over $300 million since 2021), the EIDBI autism program (over $1 billion since 2018), and Feeding Our Future (federal child nutrition funds). The creator emphasizes that this represents not traditional Medicare fraud through overbilling, but wholesale creation of shell companies submitting fraudulent claims for services not provided.

In FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul’s Own Words

“They did no such thing. Instead, they submitted fraudulent claims to Medicaid for services that they did not actually provide.”

“These aren’t companies that are providing some services but overbilling Medicare or Medicaid. These are companies that are providing essentially no services.”

“The fraud is not small. It isn’t isolated. The magnitude cannot be overstated. What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It’s a staggering industrial-scale fraud.”

This investigation matters because it exposes what prosecutors describe as a uniquely large-scale fraud problem that extends far beyond individual bad actors. The revelations suggest systematic vulnerabilities in program oversight that allegedly allowed fraudulent providers to operate unchecked, diverting resources intended for vulnerable populations—people leaving addiction treatment, individuals with autism, and those with disabilities seeking to live independently.