MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – In a fresh batch of criminal cases filed this week in Minnesota, the government said the alleged fraud involved $90 million across seven state-managed Medicaid programs.
The defendants include Fahima Mahamud, who was CEO of Future Leaders Early Learning Center, a childcare center in Minneapolis. Over three years, Mahamud’s organization was reimbursed approximately $4.6 million for services on behalf of people who didn’t make a required copayment, prosecutors allege.
A message seeking comment from her lawyer was not immediately returned Thursday. Mahamud earlier this year pleaded not guilty to fraud related to meals.
Two other people were charged with conspiring to get $975,000 in Medicaid subsidies for housing services that were not provided. They’re expected to plead guilty in June, according to a court filing.
Two additional people were accused of receiving $21.1 million by billing Medicaid for autism therapy that was either unnecessary or not provided. Investigators said the two paid families as much as $1,500 per child per month to add their names to the program and get reimbursement.
“We have been working with career federal and state partners for months to help them build criminal cases against most of these individuals – providing billing and ownership information, investigative files and treatment records for many of the businesses. Medicaid is meant for helping people who truly need it, not lining the pockets of criminals,” Minnesota Department of Human Services Inspector General James Clark said.
Trump, who has long derided Somalis, last year blasted Minnesota as “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”
“Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from,” Trump wrote on social media.
