Today, Asha Farhan Hassan, age 28, became the defendant first charged as part of a $14 million autism-clinic fraud.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson announced the charge in a press release, stating,
Today’s charges mark the first in the ongoing investigation into fraud in the EIDBI Autism Program. To be clear, this is not an isolated scheme. From Feeding Our Future to Housing Stabilization Services and now Autism Services, these massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money. Each case we bring exposes another strand of this network. The challenge is immense, but our work continues.
Hassan was charged via an information filing, which usually leads to an eventual guilty plea, and often implies a level of cooperation with investigators.
The U.S. Attorney indicates that Hassan’s share of the take was $465,000. As outlined in court filings, the case involves not just autism fraud, but also free-food fraud, the source of Hassan’s dollar figure.
Developing…
