DOJ brings charges against 15 in $90 million Minnesota Medicaid fraud schemes

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]The federal government calls it unprecedented.

[00:00:02]>> They say fraud schemes across several state programs now total more than 90 million dollars. We have team coverage starting with Connor White who's looking into new fraud charges against 15 people. Connor? Well, among those charged are two people from Brooklyn Park who prosecutors say tried taking more than 46 million dollars from a state autism services program. A woman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who built the state of Minnesota for medical services they never actually provided.

[00:00:28]And two people who submitted claims for services for a dead man. One of them tried running away when law enforcement came knocking.

[00:00:36]This is Mohamed Omar moving with a limp because prosecutors say he jumped off a fourth story balcony Thursday morning trying to avoid arrest. The FBI caught up to him by the afternoon. One of 15 people charged with defrauding the state of Minnesota out of more than 90 million dollars. My message to the fraudsters is this.

[00:00:55]Eat, drink, and be merry today because your days of frolicking and freedom are numbered. Federal prosecutors and members of President Trump's administration made that promise in Minneapolis on Thursday announcing they're beefing up fraud response systems in the Midwest and across the country. Zeroing in on fraud schemes they say targeted seven Minnesota state programs including housing services, medical services, and autism programs.

[00:01:22]In one instance prosecutors say two defendants billed Minnesota for thousands of hours of autism caregiver training that never actually happened.

[00:01:30]All while they provided illegal kickbacks to families to enroll their Medicaid eligible children. A fraud scheme that attempted to bring in more than 46 million dollars.

[00:01:39]>> This was an organized threat, organized theft that exploited the most vulnerable children in America. President Trump's allies once again placing blame on Minnesota leadership for not acting sooner. They actually didn't have it handled and there were significant problems that had gotten so out of hand that panic was setting in. Governor Walz has long defended the state's response, and Minnesota officials say they were instrumental in charging these new fraudsters, with state DHS telling WCCO in part, "We have been working with career federal and state partners for months to help them build criminal cases against most of these individuals."

[00:02:14]Adding that the state agency ended payments to 11 of these defendants months or even years ago. It's fallen significantly short of the standard that we are seeking to set in terms of what a strong state and federal partnership looks like.

[00:02:29]>> What about this most recent investigation?

[00:02:32]That was the Assistant U.S. Attorney General, essentially in charge of fraud.

[00:02:35]There were two questions he refused to answer today. He first ignored a question about ICE agent conduct in Minnesota, and second, he ignored a question about President Donald Trump granting clemency for dozens of people across the country who had fraud convictions. All right, Connor, thanks for the update.