The Justice Department on Thursday announced criminal charges against 15 defendants accused of stealing more than $90 million from Minnesota Medicaid and other taxpayer-funded social service programs in what officials described as the “largest autism fraud scheme” ever uncovered by the department.
Federal prosecutors said the cases span seven separate Minnesota-managed Medicaid programs that were allegedly exploited through fake diagnoses, kickback schemes, fraudulent billing, and nonexistent care for vulnerable children and disabled adults.
“These defendants treated Minnesota-run programs as their personal piggy bank,” said Colin McDonald, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “The fraud here in Minnesota is shocking.”
At the center of the case are two autism clinics, Smart Therapy in Minneapolis and Star Autism in St. Cloud. Prosecutors allege defendants Shamso Ahmed Hassan and Hanaan Mursal Yusuf fraudulently billed Medicaid more than $46 million for autism services that were either medically unnecessary or never provided.
According to officials speaking from a press conference Thursday afternoon, the defendants allegedly paid parents between $300 and $1,500 per child to enroll their children in autism treatment programs before billing Medicaid for services using providers who either never worked at the clinics or were no longer employed there.
The DOJ said the clinics ultimately received roughly $21 million in Medicaid reimbursements. Prosecutors allege that some of the proceeds were used to purchase luxury vehicles, Rolex watches, jewelry, and real estate, and to transfer funds overseas to Kenya.
Federal officials also announced separate fraud charges involving Minnesota housing and disability programs. In one case, prosecutors alleged a disabled man who was supposed to receive 24-hour care was later found dead after allegedly receiving no actual services while fraudulent Medicaid claims continued to be submitted in his name.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the operation “the largest autism fraud bust in American history” and accused fraudsters of exploiting vulnerable children “as billing opportunities.” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said the COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive “lack of oversight” over these programs, explaining how the situation had become this bad in recent years.
Oz also talked about a growing epidemic of parents “bribing” doctors to diagnose their children falsely with autism to reap benefits from these types of public programs.
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The Trump administration has increasingly focused on alleged fraud within Minnesota’s social safety net programs following the state’s sprawling Feeding Our Future scandal. Officials said the DOJ recently surged federal prosecutors and agents to Minnesota as part of a broader anti-fraud initiative led by Vice President JD Vance.
“This is just the beginning,” McDonald said. “The Department of Justice will continue expanding our reach across the country to pursue all fraud, no matter how large, no matter how small, no matter how hard.”