Six Additional Defendants Charged, One Defendant Pleads Guilty in Ongoing Fraud Schemes

MINNEAPOLIS – Six additional defendants have been charged federally with participating in schemes to defraud the government in the Autism fraud scheme and the Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) fraud scheme. One defendant charged in the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) Autism scheme pled guilty today.  And this morning, federal agents executed a search warrant relating to fraud in an additional state program, the Integrated Community Services (ICS) program, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen.

The EIDBI Autism Fraud Scheme

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.

From late 2020 through December 2024, Yussuf used Star Autism to carry out a scheme to defraud the EIDBI program.  Star Autism purported to provide necessary one-on-one therapy to children with autism.  In fact, Star Autism employed unqualified individuals as “behavioral technicians.”  These behavioral technicians were often 18- or 19-year-old relatives, with no formal education beyond high school and no training or certifications related to the treatment of autism.

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.

As a recruitment tactic to drive up enrollment, Star Autism paid monthly cash kickback payments to parents who enrolled their children to receive EIDBI services through Star Autism.  The amount of these payments was contingent on the services DHS authorized a child to receive—the higher the authorization amount, the higher the kickback.

Yussuf and his partners submitted millions of dollars’ worth of claims for Medicaid reimbursement on behalf of Star Autism.  Many of these claims were fraudulently inflated, billed without providers’ knowledge, and for services that were not actually provided.  The cost of the kickback payments that Star Autism paid to parents were financed through Star Autism’s fraudulent billings to Medicaid.

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.  This morning, before United States District Judge David Doty, Hassan pled guilty to one count of wire fraud for her role in these schemes.  Hassan will be sentenced at a later date.

The Housing Stabilization Services Fraud Scheme

In July 2020, Minnesota became the first state in the country to offer Medicaid coverage for Housing Stabilization Services.  The Housing Stabilization Services Program is a Medical Assistance (that is, Medicaid) benefit designed to help people with disabilities, including seniors and people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders, find and maintain housing.  By design, the HSS Program had low barriers to entry and minimal records requirements for reimbursement that combined to make the Program susceptible to fraud.

Before the HSS Program’s inaugural year, DHS predicted the HSS Program would cost about $2.6 million annually.  That proved to be inaccurate.  In 2021 alone, the HSS Program paid out more than $21 million in claims.  That figure ballooned in the following years: $42 million in 2022, $74 million in 2023, and $104 million in 2024.  In just the first six months of 2025, the Program paid out another $61 million.

In the Housing Stabilization Services fraud scheme, Anthony Waddell Jefferson, age 37, and Lester Brown, age 53, have both been charged by federal information with one count of wire fraud.

As set forth in the information, Jefferson and Brown devised and carried out a scheme to defraud Minnesota’s Housing Stability Services Program. Jefferson and Brown live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jefferson and Brown heard that Minnesota’s HSS Program was a good opportunity to make money.  Jefferson, Brown, and three of their associates decided to become Minnesota HSS Providers, despite living on the other side of the country and having no network in or connections to Minnesota or its communities.  Ultimately, their sole connection to Minnesota was their fraudulent participation in the Housing Stabilization Services Program.

Jefferson and Brown registered LLCs in Minnesota and participated in the Housing Stability Services Program as service providers.  They were supposed to provide housing consulting, transitioning, and sustaining services to qualifying people in need.  Instead, they defrauded the program.

Jefferson and Brown repeatedly flew together from Philadelphia to Minneapolis for the purpose of recruiting beneficiaries for their companies.  They visited shelters and Section 8 housing facilities, marketing themselves as “The Housing Guys.”  Jefferson hired family members and associates to work as his employees.  At Jefferson’s direction, those employees created fake client notes purporting to document services provided.  In some of that documentation, Jefferson invented fake employees whose names he used to sign off on client notes.  Brown generally did not keep client notes, despite being required by Program rules to do so.  When insurance representatives sought that documentation, Brown made up fake notes to satisfy the requests.

Jefferson and Brown submitted about $3.5 million in HSS claims for services purportedly provided to about 230 beneficiaries.

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 shared responsibilities for Pristine’s operations.  They worked with another HSS Provider called Foundation First—which was in the business of generating fake HSS Program paperwork—to “consult” on many of Pristine’s purported beneficiaries.  Pristine and Foundation First worked together to fabricate Housing Focused Plans for Pristine beneficiaries.  Pristine then used those beneficiaries’ names to submit false claims to the HSS Program.

To further expand their operations, Hussein and Mohamed retained the services of another entity—Company 1—to find new beneficiaries whose names Pristine could use to bill the Program.  Company 1 encouraged providers to use Company 1’s services to “grow [their] clientele,” “grow bigger than you are now,” and achieve “BIG profit.” 

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.

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.

Through SafeLodgings, Sallah was supposed to provide housing consulting, transitioning, and sustaining services to qualifying people in need.  Instead, he defrauded the program.

Sallah submitted inflated and fraudulent bills in which he repeatedly claimed that individual SafeLodgings employees had serviced multiple beneficiaries in the same one- or two-hour blocks.  Such double billing is neither practically possible nor is it permitted under Program rules.  Sallah submitted bills to the Program claiming that he personally provided reimbursable services.  Those bills, too, included double billing.  In 2024 alone, Sallah claimed to have personally provided more than 3,600 billable service hours.

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.

In November 2025, federal agents served Sallah, as SafeLodgings’s owner, with a grand jury subpoena for company records related to the HSS Program.  Sallah retained counsel for the purpose of responding to that subpoena.  Then he fled the country.  On or about November 26, Sallah flew from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Amsterdam.  He has not returned to the United States.

The Integrated Community Supports (ICS) Fraud Scheme

Today, the Court unsealed a search warrant for the business of Ultimate Home Health Services LLC which participated in the Integrated Community Supports (“ICS”) program.  In 2021, Minnesota began offering Medicaid coverage for ICS.  ICS is a Minnesota Medicaid benefit designed to fill a gap in the service continuum between a person living in their own home and more restrictive settings such as group homes and assisted living.

ICS was designed to help people live more independently in the community—as opposed to an institutionalized setting—with daily one-on-one help with health, safety, and household tasks so that qualifying individuals can live in the community.  Providers can bill up to 24 hours per day for ICS services.

Unfortunately, the ICS program has been vulnerable to fraud. As with the EDIBI and HSS programs, the ICS program has seen explosive growth over the five years since it began in 2021. After paying out a total of approximately $4.6 million in 2021, the program has grown to cost more than $170 million in 2024.  In all, claims data shows that the Medicaid system has paid out more than $400 million for ICS services since 2021.

According to DHS records, Ultimate Home Health Services submitted claims for reimbursement for over $1.1 million in ICS funds between approximately June 2024 and August 2025.  During that time, Ultimate Home Health Services submitted claims on behalf of a total of 13 clients. According to the search warrant affidavit, ICS billed Medicaid for services for multiple individuals that it did not provide.  ICS falsely claimed to have provided ICS services to one individual on all but four days over a 447-day period.

Another individual with severe mental illness was found dead in his apartment, and DHS records show that he was receiving ICS services from Ultimate Home Health at the time of his death.  According to DHS records, Ultimate Home Health claimed to be providing 12 hours of services a day, although the individual’s mother, who visited him at least once a week, said that Ultimate Home Health was not providing anywhere near the care for which they were billing Medicaid.

These cases are the result of investigations being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph H. Thompson, Daniel W. Bobier, Harry M. Jacobs, Rebecca E. Kline, and Matthew Murphy are prosecuting these cases.

Informations and Indictments are merely allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.