There are people who have gone to prison over thousands in fraud. This is millions in fraud. And yet…
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office secured a guilty plea Friday from the only defendant involved in the largest Medicaid fraud case in state history who is still in the United States.
Said Awil Ibrahim, 26, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty on May 1 in Hennepin County District Court to two counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle over $35,000 and agreed to help officials pursue and prosecute his codefendant, Abdirashid Ismail Said, the alleged mastermind of the fraud.
The case, which was charged in 2023, alleges three men fraudulently obtained $11 million through companies purported to provide personal care assistance services using waivers with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The case has attracted a great deal of notoriety after Said fled the country ahead of his jury trial last month. Another codefendant has never been detained and is believed to have fled the country during the investigation.
In pleading guilty, Ibrahim had a racketeering charge and two additional theft by swindle charges dismissed. He agreed to pay $2.2 million in joint restitution and will be placed on five years supervised probation. His 150-day jail sentence will be stayed as long as he complies with probation and sticks to a payment plan that will be determined at sentencing.
The Minnesota Attorney General is a guy named Keith X. Ellison, an Islamist who used to be affiliated with the Nation of Islam, and was accused of assault by two women.
Enough said.
I have been following the Somali fraud cases in Minnesota for a long time now and the trials were more normative until they became seen as ‘partisan’ at which point Trump Derangement Syndrome makes all this sort of thing easier to stomach.
Some will shrug because the Somali is in theory promising to repay $2.2 million (out of apparently $11 million.)
Is the $2.2 million in restitution actually happening? If he has that much in the way of assets, why is there a payment plan, and why aren’t his assets being seized? If he doesn’t, then this is a farce.
If he doesn’t stick with the payment plan, the worst he gets is half a year in prison.
The fish in Minnesota rots from the head. Always has.
