Minnesota: America's Medicaid Fraud Capital
Minnesota has some of the most generous Medicaid programs in the country — and some of the weakest oversight. The result? A state with 1.7% of America's population accounts for 5.9% of all federal exclusions in fraud-heavy categories like home health, personal care, and transportation services. The DOJ has set up a special strike force just for Minnesota. People literally fly in from other states to commit Medicaid fraud here.
December 2025: The $9 Billion Bombshell
In December 2025, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota dropped a number that rewrote the narrative: Medicaid fraud in Minnesota-run services likely exceeds $9 billion across 14 programs — including housing services (Integrated Community Supports), autism therapy (EIDBI), personal care, and more. Not millions. Billions. The announcement turned a state-level scandal into a national political crisis.
On December 18, 2025, federal prosecutors unveiled new charges in what they called "industrial-scale" Medicaid fraud. Providers were billing $100,000 to $200,000 per year per client for housing services that were never delivered. One provider — Ultimate Home Health Services — billed$1.1 million between June 2024 and August 2025 for services not provided. These aren't billing errors or gray-area upcoding. This is phantom billing at industrial scale.
DOJ Strike Force
The Department of Justice created a special strike force specifically for Minnesota Medicaid fraud — an almost unheard-of step for a single state. When the federal government sets up a dedicated task force for your state's fraud problem, it's no longer a local issue. It's a national emergency.
House Oversight Committee
On December 31, 2025, the U.S. House Oversight Committee invited Governor Tim Walz and Republican state legislators to testify about the crisis. Walz called the $9 billion estimate "sensationalized." Minnesota's State Medicaid Director said they have evidence of "tens of millions" in fraud — not $9 billion. The gap between those numbers tells you everything about the state's posture: minimize, deflect, dispute the math.
Feeding Our Future Update
78 indictmentsThe Feeding Our Future case has now reached 78 indictments and nearly 60 convictions, with the investigation sprawling well beyond the original nonprofit. The web of defendants keeps expanding — and overlapping with other fraud schemes. At least one defendant in the Feeding Our Future case was also charged in the assisted living fraud scheme — collecting state money while awaiting trial on the meal fraud charges. The same networks, the same people, exploiting program after program.
⚡ The Political Dimension
This is now a national political story. Governor Tim Walz — a former vice presidential candidate — is under direct scrutiny for his administration's oversight failures. The $9 billion estimate, whether precise or not, has made Minnesota Medicaid fraud a talking point in Washington. The House Oversight hearings, the DOJ strike force, and the sheer scale of the numbers have elevated this from a state government failure to a federal accountability crisis. The question is no longer whether Minnesota's oversight failed — it's how many billions were lost while it did.
The Scale of the Problem
When the federal government catches a healthcare provider committing fraud, they're placed on the OIG Exclusion List — permanently banned from billing Medicare and Medicaid. There are currently 83K providers on this list nationwide. (Our analysis found that 40 excluded providers still appear in Medicaid billing data.)
Minnesota has 1,369 of them — 1.7% of the national total. That alone isn't shocking for a mid-sized state. But look closer at what types of fraud these exclusions involve, and a disturbing pattern emerges.
In fraud-heavy categories — home health agencies, personal care providers, medical transportation companies, and interpreter services — Minnesota accounts for 5.9% of all national exclusions. That's nearly 4 times what you'd expect based on population. (See our full state-by-state geographic risk analysis for how Minnesota compares.)
Fraud-Heavy Exclusions Per Million Residents
Home health, personal care, transportation, interpreter services
What's Being Exploited
Minnesota's Medicaid program offers unusually generous community-based services: personal care attendants, home health aides, medical transportation, housing stabilization, interpreter services, and day treatment. These programs were designed with good intentions — keeping disabled and elderly people in their communities instead of institutions.
But generous programs with minimal verification create a simple equation: more money + less oversight = more fraud. And that's exactly what happened.
Personal Care & Home Health
270+ providers excluded. Billing for care never provided, ghost employees, fabricated timesheets. PCA services (code T1019) alone account for over $113 billion in national Medicaid spending.
Medical Transportation
29 transportation companies excluded in Minnesota — 4th highest in the nation. Billing for rides that never happened, phantom passengers, made-up destinations. Faribault (pop. 24,000) alone has 8 transportation fraud exclusions.
Interpreter Services
This is the most striking number: 13 of 16 interpreter/translator fraud exclusions in the entire country are in Minnesota. 81%. Billing for interpretation services that never occurred or greatly exaggerating hours.
Housing Stabilization
Minnesota's Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program has attracted "fraud tourists" — people traveling from other states to exploit the program. In February 2026, two Philadelphia men pleaded guilty to a $3.5 million HSS fraud scheme using AI-generated fake records.
"Fraud Tourists": When Other States Target Your Programs
On February 10, 2026, the DOJ announced that two Pennsylvania men had pleaded guilty to "repeatedly traveling from Philadelphia to Minneapolis to defraud Minnesota's Housing Stabilization Services program of approximately $3.5 million."
They marketed themselves as "The Housing Guys" at homeless shelters, recruited vulnerable Medicaid beneficiaries, and when insurance companies questioned their claims, they used artificial intelligence to fabricate records.
The DOJ called it "part of a collaboration between the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota and the Criminal Division's Fraud Section to combat prolific fraud on government programs in Minnesota." When the DOJ has a special collaboration just for your state's fraud problem, you know it's bad.
Minnesota is so well-known for fraud vulnerability that it has become a destination. The term "fraud tourist" — used in the DOJ's own press release — tells you everything about how the state's programs are perceived by organized criminals.
The Faribault Cluster
Faribault, Minnesota is a city of about 24,000 people, roughly 50 miles south of Minneapolis. It has 21 OIG-excluded providers — a staggering number for a small city. Eight of those are transportation company fraud cases, nearly all since 2019.
Faribault Exclusions (21 total)
A Fraud Epidemic That's Getting Worse
The numbers have been accelerating. In 2018, Minnesota had just 9 exclusions in fraud-heavy categories. By 2023 and 2024, that number hit 44 each year — a nearly 5x increase.
MN Fraud-Heavy Exclusions by Year
The Bigger Picture: Minnesota's Fraud Epidemic Goes Far Beyond Medicaid
Our OIG exclusion data captures only the Medicaid/Medicare fraud side. But Minnesota's fraud problem extends across virtually every federal social services program the state administers — and the scale is staggering.
Feeding Our Future — $250M+ Stolen
Largest Pandemic Fraud in US HistoryA Minnesota nonprofit that claimed to distribute meals to schoolchildren during COVID-19. Federal prosecutors say it stole over $250 million while providing few or no meals at most locations. Attorney General Merrick Garland called it the country's largest pandemic relief fraud scheme.
At its peak, Feeding Our Future listed 299 "meal sites" claiming to serve 90 million meals in under 2 years — over 120,000 meals per day. One site the FBI surveilled claimed 6,000 meals/day but averaged about 40 visitors. Only ~3% of funding was actually spent on food.
As of early 2026, 78 individuals have been indicted, with nearly 60 convictions including guilty pleas and those found guilty at trial, including scheme leader Aimee Bock. The state's education department flagged fraud signs as early as 2019, but a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination created a chilling effect on oversight — a state legislative audit later confirmed this pressure compromised the agency's ability to investigate.
Political connections: The scheme involved ties to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's office (adviser Abdi Salah pled guilty to wire fraud), council member Jamal Osman (whose wife ran a meal site receiving $400K+), and state senator Omar Fateh. Multiple politicians returned donations from implicated individuals.
Autism Therapy (EIDBI) Fraud
Federal investigators found at least a dozen Feeding Our Future defendants also owned or were associated with autism therapy centers in Minnesota. In December 2025, Asha Farhan Hassan pled guilty to stealing $14 million in EIDBI (Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention) funding. Minnesota has since paused payments in 14 Medicaid programs including autism therapy while conducting audits.
Housing Stabilization — Shut Down Entirely
Minnesota's Integrated Community Supports (ICS) program went from $4.6 million/year at launch in 2021 to $180 million in 2025 — "explosive growth" that Minnesota has now recognized was largely fraudulent. At least 17 providers were suspended for credible fraud allegations. One ICS enrollee, Rick Clemmer, died in 2025 from a medical emergency with no one present — despite his provider billing for 12 hours of daily one-on-one care. Minnesota has since shut down the entire housing stabilization system.
Substance Abuse Treatment Fraud
Evergreen, a substance abuse provider, billed for 203 hours of service from a single employee in one day. Its CEO and CFO pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Separately, Kyros (Minnesota's largest addiction recovery provider) used a shell nonprofit to bill Medicaid for questionable services like "watching movies" — routing 96% of the nonprofit's revenue back to for-profit Kyros subsidiaries. DHS halted payments in 2024.
⚡ The Common Thread
These aren't isolated incidents — they're interconnected. The same individuals and networks appear across multiple fraud schemes: Feeding Our Future defendants running autism therapy centers, housing fraud operators expanding into personal care, substance abuse providers exploiting billing loopholes. Minnesota's oversight apparatus failed to connect the dots across programs, allowing the same actors to exploit multiple funding streams simultaneously.
Minneapolis: The Epicenter
More than a quarter of all Minnesota exclusions — 353 — are in Minneapolis alone. Combined with Saint Paul, the Twin Cities metro accounts for the vast majority of the state's Medicaid fraud.
Recent Exclusions
Here are the most recent providers excluded from federal healthcare programs in Minnesota for fraud-heavy service categories. Each of these individuals was convicted of healthcare fraud (1128a1) or excluded for program-related conduct.
| Name | City | Category | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abubakar Ahmed | Circle Pines | Home Health | 2026-02-19 |
| Edna Farah | Hamel | Home Health | 2026-01-20 |
| Foos Igal | Faribault | Transportation | 2026-01-20 |
| Latonia Jackson | Minneapolis | Transportation | 2026-01-20 |
| Deborah Johnson | Minneapolis | Personal Care | 2026-01-20 |
| Chantal Kuou | Saint Paul | Home Health | 2026-01-20 |
| Muhidin Maow | Minneapolis | Transportation | 2026-01-20 |
| Lorette Mckinley | Saint Paul | Personal Care | 2026-01-20 |
| Abdikarim Mohamed | Minneapolis | Home Health | 2026-01-20 |
| Michael Nornie | Brooklyn Center | Counseling | 2026-01-20 |
| Ahmed Nur | Saint Paul | Home Health | 2026-01-20 |
| Bishara Abdirahman | Faribault | Transportation | 2025-12-18 |
| Maryam Bina | Watertown | Personal Care | 2025-12-18 |
| Yusuf Lohos | Faribault | Transportation | 2025-12-18 |
| Nadia Loving | Brainerd | Personal Care | 2025-12-18 |
| Nusayba Mohamed | Saint Paul | Personal Care | 2025-12-18 |
| Gao Thao | Minneapolis | Personal Care | 2025-12-18 |
| Jeffrey Cartharn | Minneapolis | Personal Care | 2025-10-20 |
| Jordan Jarvi | Andover | Personal Care | 2025-10-20 |
| Victor Kamara | Minneapolis | Assisted Living | 2025-10-20 |
Organized Rings: When Multiple People Go Down Together
Medicaid fraud in Minnesota isn't just lone actors — it's organized. Since 2018, there have been 55 dates where 3 or more Minnesota providers were excluded simultaneously — a sign they were caught in the same investigation. The largest single-day action took down 20 people at once.
These coordinated exclusions typically involve clusters of home health agencies, personal care providers, interpreters, and transportation companies — all the services needed to create a complete phantom billing operation.
Largest Coordinated Exclusion Actions (2023–2026)
Same Address, Multiple Exclusions
When multiple excluded providers share the same address, it often indicates an organized operation — a single location running multiple fraudulent entities. We found 21 addresses in Minnesota with 2 or more excluded providers.
Notable: The Akore family at 2200 Homestead Ave N, Saint Paul — Kwesi Akore (home health, excluded Jan 2024), followed by Angela Stover-Akore (home health, excluded Jul 2024). Same address, same service type, six months apart. The Clement family at 3931 Princeton Trl, Saint Paul — both excluded for home health agency fraud. And three providers at 3567 Commonwealth Rd, Saint Paul — personal care and interpreter services, all excluded within a year.
Why This Keeps Happening
Minnesota's Medicaid fraud problem isn't a mystery. It's a predictable consequence of program design:
Generous Benefits, Minimal Verification
Minnesota pays for services — personal care, transportation, interpretation — that many states don't cover at all, or cover with strict caps. The state's self-directed PCA program allows beneficiaries to hire their own caregivers with minimal state verification that care actually occurred.
Low Barriers to Entry
Starting a home health agency or transportation company in Minnesota and getting enrolled as a Medicaid provider is relatively easy. The "fraud tourists" case proves this — out-of-state individuals can set up operations and start billing quickly.
Pay-and-Chase Model
Like most states, Minnesota pays claims first and investigates later. By the time fraud is detected, the money is often gone — sometimes sent overseas. The average time between fraud and exclusion is years, not months.
Vulnerable Populations as Targets
Fraudsters recruit Medicaid beneficiaries — often elderly, disabled, or non-English-speaking individuals — to sign forms for services they never received. The beneficiaries often don't understand what they're signing or are given small payments as incentives.
The Bottom Line
Minnesota taxpayers and Medicaid beneficiaries deserve better. The state's generous programs were created to help vulnerable people — instead, they've become a feeding ground for organized fraud schemes. The DOJ shouldn't need a special strike force for one state's Medicaid fraud.
The numbers don't lie: 1,369 exclusions, 5.9% of national fraud-heavy exclusions, 81% of all interpreter fraud in America, and a 5x increase in fraud-heavy exclusions since 2018. This isn't just bad luck — it's a systemic oversight failure.
Until Minnesota implements meaningful provider verification, pre-payment auditing, and higher barriers to enrollment, the state will continue to be a magnet for fraud. And taxpayers will keep footing the bill.
Methodology
This analysis uses the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE), which contains 83K providers excluded from federal healthcare programs. We categorized exclusions by specialty type, state, and exclusion code.
"Fraud-heavy categories" include: Home Health Agency, Personal Care Provider, Transportation Company, Interpreter/Translator, Assisted Living Facility, and Counseling Center — service types with the highest rates of documented Medicaid fraud nationally.
Exclusion type 1128a1 indicates conviction of a criminal offense related to the delivery of an item or service under Medicare or a State health care program. Per-capita rates use 2023 Census population estimates. DOJ case details from HHS-OIG Enforcement Actions database.