It was a big day for Minnesota fraud yesterday, with lead federal fraud prosecutor Joe Thompson announcing new indictments, a new FBI raid, and another guilty plea.
Thompson held a 35-minute press conference that you can watch here on YouTube. All of the details are available on the accompanying press release issued by Thompson’s office.
Six defendants have been newly charged this week:
- Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf (autism)
- Kaamil Omar Sallah (HSS)
- Hassan Ahmed Hussein (HSS)
- Ahmed Abdirashid Mohamed (HSS)
- Anthony Waddell Jefferson (HSS)
- Lester Brown (HSS)
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, always trying to downplay the frauds, comes out with the headline,
Federal prosecutors charge six more people in ‘staggering’ social services fraud scandal:
Those charged Thursday reportedly scammed more than $11.6 million from housing stabilization and autism services programs.
The big news from yesterday was Thompson’s announcement that the total fraud price tag is $9 billion (with a “b”) higher than previous reported. Yet, the Star Tribune managed to craft a headline out of that revelation which includes a mere “m.”
Messrs. Jefferson and Brown are the alleged “fraud tourists,” having ventured from Philadelphus to participate in the now shuttered Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program.
If I’m reading my notes from yesterday correctly, Mr. Sallah no longer resides in the United States.
Messrs. Hussein and Mohamed made their first appearances in federal court yesterday. Both were released on bond.
Pleading guilty yesterday was Asha Farhan Hassan. She admitted to participating in both the food and autism clinic frauds, costing taxpayers some $14 million (autism) and $465,000 (food). Sentencing guidelines call for a prison term in the range of 6 to 7 years.
Thompson also announced an FBI raid involving yet another Medicaid program, Integrated Community Services (ICE). The search warrant in the case lists the dollars paid out under ICS since the program’s inception in 2021, charting its explosive growth,
Doing the math, $171 million paid out last year, divided by 2,444 clients, works out to almost $70,000 per client.
The target of yesterday’s search warrant was Ultimate Home Health Services LLC, founded in 2021. Its listed owners are Othman Mohamed and Hasan Abshir. No charges have been filed in the case.
Since its founding, Ultimate has received over $1 million in state payments.
Based on yesterday’s new information, I’ve updated the numbers in ScandalTrackerTM
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