The Somali contributions to Minnesota just keep on coming.
Federal prosecutors on Thursday filed a new round of fraud charges against providers of Medicaid-funded programs administered by the state of Minnesota — and gave yet another hint at the scale of theft taking place under the watch of state agencies.
At a news conference announcing charges against six individuals who allegedly defrauded the state of more than $10 million in various schemes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said he believed “a significant amount” of the $18 billion paid out by 14 “high–risk” Medicaid-funded programs since 2018 was lost to fraud — possibly half or more.
“Fraud is not small. It isn’t isolated. The magnitude cannot be overstated,” he said. “What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes; it’s staggering, industrial-scale fraud.”
That’s $9 billion. And the arrests keep coming.
In the Autism fraud scheme, Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, age 27, has been charged by federal information with one count of wire fraud. As set forth in the information, Yussuf and others devised and carried out a scheme to defraud the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention benefit, a publicly funded Minnesota Health Care Program that offers medically necessary services to people under the age of 21 with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Yussuf was the President and CEO of Star Autism Center LLC.
To run their fraud scheme, Yussuf and his partners needed children who had an autism diagnosis and an individual treatment plan. They approached parents in the Somali community to recruit their children into Star Autism. If a child did not have an autism diagnosis, Yussuf and his partners worked to get the recruited child qualified for autism services.
Yussuf’s fraudulent scheme resulted in Star Autism obtaining more than $6 million in EIDBI reimbursement funds from Minnesota DHS and UCare. Yussuf shared in the proceeds of the fraud scheme with the other owners and investors in Star Autism. Among other things, Yussuf used more than $100,000 in fraud proceeds to purchase a freightliner semi-truck. He also sent more than $200,000 in fraud proceeds to Kenya.
In September 2025, Asha Farhan Hassan, age 28, was charged by federal information with wire fraud for her role in a $14 million Autism fraud scheme. Hassan was also charged with participating in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, for which she received $465,000.
Remember when the media was bragging that Somalis pay $67 million in taxes a year? Here three Somalis alone stole $20 million.
In the Housing Stabilization Services fraud scheme, Hassan Ahmed Hussein, age 28, and Ahmed Abdirashid Mohamed, age 27, have both been charged by federal indictment with one count of wire fraud.
As set forth in the indictment, Hussein and Mohamed owned and operated a company called Pristine Health LLC in St. Paul. Hussein and Mohamed registered Pristine Health with the Minnesota Secretary of State and then submitted paperwork to DHS to operate Pristine as an HSS provider. Hussein and Mohamed were supposed to provide housing consulting, transitioning, and sustaining services to qualifying people in need. Instead, and in furtherance of their fraud scheme, Hussein and Mohamed caused the submission of false claims information that significantly overrepresented the services they provided.
Hussein and Mohamed claimed to service nearly 100 different beneficiaries through Pristine and for such services claimed to be entitled to about $750,000. But in reality, the defendants’ operations at Pristine provided only a fraction of their claimed total.
Hussein and Mohamed spent much of their fraud proceeds on themselves and to fund personal travel, including to London, Sydney, Dubai, Istanbul, and several destinations in Saudi Arabia.
“Locations in Saudi Arabia”. Like Mecca perhaps?
In the housing stabilization services fraud scheme, Kaamil Omar Sallah, age 26, has been charged by indictment with four counts of wire fraud. Sallah owned and operated a company called SafeLodgings, Inc. Sallah registered SafeLodgings with the Minnesota Secretary of State in March 2023. That same month, Sallah submitted paperwork to enroll SafeLodgings as an HSS Provider.
Sallah diverted much of his fraud proceeds to conspirators, including to his employees at SafeLodgings, and he spent much of it on himself and on investments, including nearly $150,000 in a cryptocurrency exchange.
In all, between approximately March 2023 and August 2025, Sallah and his company fraudulently claimed to be entitled to approximately $1.4 million for providing Housing Stabilization Services and received nearly $1.3 million.
And this is just the beginning. There are billions of dollars worth of this stuff. And not just in Minnesota.
