By Janice Hisle
Contributing Writer
The Justice Department’s new fraud-fighting unit, formed in April, recently announced its first round of prosecutions in Minnesota: 15 defendants accused of $90 million in fake claims to government-benefit programs.
Commenting on the “Minnesota Health Care Fraud Takedown,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department’s new fraud division is working with the White House’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. Together, they will “dismantle illegal schemes from coast-to-coast, just as they did today in Minnesota,” Blanche said in a news release, adding: “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
In late 2025, Minnesota’s estimated $9 billion in Medicaid fraud spawned federal crackdowns that spread nationwide. Many past cases, dating to 2018, involve Somalis.
Court records do not disclose ethnicities of the defendants in the new cases, which span seven benefit programs in Minnesota.
Last year, officials said 14 of the state’s 87 Medicaid programs were at risk for fraud.
Two of the exploited programs aimed to provide in-home help for the elderly or disabled. Two programs involved child care. The other three programs centered on meals for children, housing assistance, and autism therapy for patients 21 and younger.
Here are details about the new cases, gleaned from court records and officials’ statements.
$46.6 Million in Autism Claims
Two Minnesotans are charged in a $46.6-million autism-fraud scheme — the largest case of its kind, according to the Justice Department. Of that amount in allegedly fraudulent claims, Minnesota Medicaid paid about $21.2 million.
Shamso Ahmed Hassan, 55, and Hanaan Mursal Yusuf, 25, both of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, are accused of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, and money laundering. They are also charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to make false statements related to health care matters.
The charges stem from two autism-treatment businesses, Star Autism Center and Smart Therapy. In exchange for enrolling their children in therapy programs, parents were paid monthly kickbacks of $300 to $1,500 per child, the indictment says.
Prosecutors allege both businesses “billed Medicaid for services that were not rendered” or were unreimbursable.
For example, Smart Therapy claimed to have rendered 3,000 hours of training for one family during an 18-month span, the indictment says, yet “the recipient’s family never received any training from Smart Therapy.”
Neither Hassan’s lawyer, Kevin Riach, nor Yusuf’s attorney, Bruce Rivers, responded to a request for comment by publication time.
‘A Vulnerable Elderly Man’
“R.C.,” a Medicaid recipient, “was supposed to be receiving 24-hour care,” a court record says, but those services “were not actually provided.” R.C. was found dead in March 2025, a day after defendant Ahmed Othman Kadar allegedly submitted a bill to Medicaid for R.C.’s care, Kadar’s indictment says. The document does not state whether the alleged neglect played a role in that death.
Vice President JD Vance, whom President Donald Trump appointed to head an anti-fraud task force, recently shared additional insights about the tragedy.
The defendant allegedly victimized “a vulnerable elderly man,” Vance said at a Tuesday meeting of the task force. No care was provided to that man for months, Vance alleged. Meanwhile, the designated caregiver was regularly receiving Medicaid reimbursements for promised services.
As a result, the elderly man “lived his final moments on this Earth neglected while a fraudster got rich,” the vice president said, adding, “That’s what we’re trying to stop, ladies and gentlemen.”
An indictment accuses Kadar of fraudulently billing Minnesota Medicaid for Integrated Community Services — one-on-one help to people with disabilities so they can live independently in their own homes.
Kadar ran Ultimate Home Health, which rented an 11-unit apartment complex “for the purpose of housing Medicaid recipients for whom Ultimate could bill Medicaid” for those services, his indictment says.
He was supposed to transport Medicaid recipients to medical appointments. Those trips never happened, “and resulted in Medicaid recipients failing to receive needed medical care,” the indictment alleges.
The indictment also accuses Kadar of billing Medicaid for services while failing to respond to his tenants’ complaints that their electricity had been shut off. Medicaid recipients were therefore “forced to live in units without heat during winter,” the document says.
During this same time frame — April 2024 through November 2025 — Kadar billed Minnesota Medicaid for $1.4 million in “false and fraudulent claims,” the indictment says. He also allegedly transferred $630,000 in Medicaid reimbursements from Ultimate’s bank account to his personal accounts.
Kadar, 22, of Rosemount, Minnesota, faces five charges: three counts of health care fraud and two counts of money laundering, prosecutors said.
Court records list no attorney for Kadar.
Luxury Cars, Rolex Watches
A man and woman are accused of making $22.7 million in false claims to Medicaid and diverting more than $1 million in fraud proceeds for their personal use.
Charles Healey and Katherin Larsen-Guthmiller bought luxury cars — “an Aston Martin, three Porsches, and three Teslas” — along with five Rolex watches and other expensive jewelry, according to their indictment.
The pair and their affiliated companies “owned at least 20 residences” where one of the companies claimed to provide care under Medicaid’s Individualized Home Supports program, the court document says. That program aims to help those with brain injuries or other impairments.
Between January 2021 and September 2025, Healey and Larsen-Guthmiller “gained access to more than 25 vulnerable adult Medicaid beneficiaries by offering them housing” that the pair owned and controlled, the indictment says.
The pair allegedly charged tenants below-market rent to live at the properties, then required the beneficiaries to use Healey’s company as their Medicaid service provider.
Medicaid regulations forbid such an arrangement. But “Healey falsely represented” that he owned no properties in which his company provided Medicaid services, the indictment says.
Healey, 61, and Larsen-Guthmiller, 66, both of Blue Earth, Minnesota, are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and money laundering, a case summary says.
Comment was sought from Healey’s lawyer, Thomas Calhoun-Lopez, but no reply was received prior to publication time. Court records listed no attorney for Larsen-Guthmiller.
More ‘Fraud Tourism’
Fitting prosecutors’ description of “fraud tourism,” three of the latest defendants are accused of traveling from Pennsylvania to take advantage of Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services program. State officials shut down that program last fall, citing widespread fraud.
New cases against Deborah Hodges, 59; Cynthia Allen, 62; and Candice Langley, 46, are similar to accusations lodged in late 2025 against Anthony Waddell Jefferson, 37, and Lester Brown, 53. Jefferson and Brown, who also came from Philadelphia, admitted guilt in February. They agreed to forfeit a combined total of about $3.5 million, court records show. They were awaiting sentencing.
Hodges is accused of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud. The charges stem from “a scheme to submit $5.3 million in fraudulent claims” to Minnesota Medicaid, which paid nearly all that amount. “In one egregious example, she billed Medicaid for in-person services provided while the Medicaid recipient was at an in-patient drug treatment program,” prosecutors said, alleging that Hodges “falsified case notes to justify the claim.”
Allen and Langley operated “putatively separate companies” but shared office space, employees and other resources, prosecutors alleged.
Together, the two women’s companies “claimed to provide [housing services] to almost 350 Medicaid beneficiaries,” the Justice Department said, and were paid a total of about $3.5 million.
Allen and Langley “provided some services,” but “substantially inflated their hours and otherwise falsified claims,” prosecutors said. They were charged with health care-fraud conspiracy.
Five Minnesotans are also accused of defrauding the housing program.
Sharmaine Meadows, 45, of Lake Elmo, is accused of submitting more than $4.3 million in fraudulent claims and receiving about $3.7 million of that amount. Her lawyer, Peter Wold, said he wanted to comment, but was unavailable to do so prior to publication time.
Authorities accuse Muhammad Omar, 32, of Roseville, and Ibrahim Bashir Abdi, 25, of Minneapolis, of illegally receiving $3.2 million.
And a pair of 22-year-olds from Minneapolis, Mustafa Dayib and Abdulbasit Ibrahim, were paid nearly $1 million for “services that were not rendered,” prosecutors alleged.
Attorneys for those four defendants either declined to comment or did not respond to requests.
Child Care, Meals Allegedly Lacking
Fahima Mahamud, 50, of Minneapolis, is accused in two schemes that stole almost $5.5 million in federal funds, prosecutors said.
She owned Future Leaders Early Learning Center, a child care facility that also was responsible for serving meals to children.
In the alleged child care scheme, Mahamud submitted claims and certified to officials that she was collecting co-payments from parents — a requirement “meant to ensure that families were paying their fair share of child care expenses,” prosecutors said. She allegedly failed to do so, reaping $4.6 million.
In the alleged meals scheme, prosecutors said Mahamud “submitted inflated reimbursement claims” to Feeding Our Future. That now-defunct nonprofit ran a $250-million fraud network; group members falsely claimed they fed millions of meals to children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After obtaining $854,000 from the meals program, Mahamud “used only a fraction … to purchase food,” and instead used the money to buy real estate, prosecutors said.
Her lawyer, Debra Hilstrom, did not reply to a request for comment prior to publication time.
In a separate case, authorities accuse Jillaine Mertens, 42, of Hamel, Minnesota, of wire fraud for child care claims that netted about $425,000. She owned three child care centers. Prosecutors allege Mertens received reimbursements for “in-classroom services that were never actually provided, for individuals who were not actually employed by the child care centers.”
Attorney Joe Tamburino declined to comment on her behalf.
