Two Philadelphians allegedly traveled to the North Star State after learning it was easy to defraud
Minnesota has “developed a fraud tourism industry” that entices scammers to travel to the North Star State to exploit “easy money” taxpayer-funded programs, Joe Thompson, the federal prosecutor behind the Somali fraud convictions, said Thursday. He unveiled charges against six new defendants, including two who were based in Philadelphia.
Federal prosecutors accused Anthony Waddell Jefferson and Lester Brown of traveling to Minneapolis to enroll sham companies in Minnesota’s federally funded Housing Stabilization Services program after hearing it was “a good opportunity to make money.” The pair then returned to Philadelphia where they allegedly submitted up to $3.5 million in “fake and inflated” Medicaid reimbursement bills. They both face wire fraud charges.
“Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry—people coming to our state purely to exploit and defraud its programs,” Thompson said. “This is a deeply unsettling reality that all Minnesotans should understand.”
“Mr. Jefferson and Brown were residents of Philadelphia who had no connection to Minnesota, except that they heard Minnesota and its housing stabilization services program was easy money,” Thompson added.
The new charges further challenge Gov. Tim Walz’s (D.) claim that he was responsible “for putting people in jail” over a massive fraud scheme perpetuated almost entirely by Somalis. All 78 indictments surrounding Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from a federal child nutrition program, have been filed by federal prosecutors and stem from FBI investigations. So far, more than 50 defendants have pleaded guilty, and seven have been convicted at trial.
St. Paul mayor Melvin Carter (D.), went a step further and said federal prosecutors weren’t “adding value” and falsely claimed state officials uncovered the crimes and pressed charges—they’ve actually indicted zero individuals associated with the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, while a state employee opted to bring her concerns to the FBI. Other state officials were reluctant to scrutinize the fraudsters, who threatened to accuse them of racism and plant negative news stories about them if they did so, the New York Times reported.
Thompson, during his press conference, noted, “Every day we look under a rock and find a new $50 million fraud scheme.”
The charges he announced Thursday stem from a broader investigation into alleged fraud targeting Minnesota’s now-defunct Housing Stabilization Program, which was designed to help disabled and homeless Minnesotans find and maintain stable housing, as well as the state’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program, which provided autism treatment services.
Among them were wire fraud charges against Hassan Ahmed Hussein and Ahmed Abdirashid Mohamed. Thompson accused them of obtaining $750,000 through Medicaid claims intended to help people facing housing instability issues. They instead allegedly spent much of the money on international travel to London, Sydney, Istanbul, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia.
Kaamil Omar Sallah was charged in a separate case for a similar scheme involving $1.4 million in fraudulent Medicaid claims, $150,000 of which he used to purchase cryptocurrency. He fled to Amsterdam after being served with a subpoena.
Thompson also accused Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf of providing parents with kickbacks to have their children diagnosed with autism, then enroll them in his treatment center and bill Medicaid for his services—a scheme that allegedly earned him $6 million in fraudulent payments. His clinic involved “behavioral technicians” who were often 18- or 19-year-old relatives with no formal training or education past high school, according to Thompson. Yussuf allegedly spent $100,000 of his fraud proceeds on a truck and wired another $200,000 to Kenya.
Asha Farhan Hassan, meanwhile, pleaded guilty Thursday to wire fraud tied to a separate $14 million autism fraud scheme as well as to her role in the Feeding Our Future scheme, which earned her $465,000, according to Thompson.
A Monday poll found that an overwhelming majority of registered voters in Minnesota see fraud in state programs as a serious issue, with 79 percent saying it is either the biggest or a major problem in the state. Ninety-two percent overall identified it as a problem. The same poll showed only 14 percent of respondents think Walz has done enough to stop the fraud, while 69 percent said he needs to “do more” to address the issue.
