Whistleblower claims Maine taxpayers are newest victims in Somali-linked medicaid scheme

New York Post

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00:00A former program coordinator at a health services company is blowing the whistle,

00:04alleging to NewsNation that a Somali-American-led contractor in Maine

00:08defrauded the state's Medicaid program by falsifying client visit records.

00:13That left taxpayers to fund the bill for services that were never completed, according to the claims.

00:18We started getting some clients calling and saying months later that their client owed them hours.

00:23They hadn't come in for these shifts and stuff.

00:26But I had a time card for it.

00:28And they were billing for it?

00:29They were billing for it.

00:30Christopher Bernardini, who worked for and was later fired from Gateway Community Services,

00:35the health services contractor at the heart of the scandal,

00:38told NewsNation that the scheme got worse during the pandemic,

00:42alleging that when the company received a PPP loan,

00:45it started giving out bonuses to undeserving employees.

00:49Bernardini is putting a public face on a scandal that first started to come to light in May,

00:53when local news outlet MainWire reported that Gateway Community Services

00:57had inflated Medicaid billing for at least seven years and received a violation for overbilling main care

01:04by nearly a million dollars between 2015 and 2017, according to former employees.

01:11Months earlier, the outlet had published a damning deep dive on the health company's founder,

01:16Abdullah Ali, a Somali-American who, while serving as executive director,

01:20was also running to become president of Jubaland, a state in southern Somalia.

01:26In an interview dug up by the outlet, Ali, who later lost the election,

01:30claimed to Kenyan media that while in the U.S., he had helped finance a militia in the Somali state.

01:35I met us, and I had a close friend to study the school group.

01:38Barbara, I met him in this country, and he said that he didn't have a loan,

01:42because he wanted us to come to the public, and he's a charity, and that he has built us to build it.

01:48Wow.

01:48It was a long time here.

01:49Ali addressed the criticism on his now-private ex-account, writing,

01:53I make no apologies for building a successful business in Maine,

01:57working hard to earn a living, earning my Ph.D.,

02:00giving back to my main community,

02:01and running for office in Jubiland.

02:04I am proud to contribute my hard-earned money

02:06to support my people back home.

02:08America is a nation of laws.

02:10You cannot change facts by fabricating false stories.

02:13I am a Somali-American.

02:15Bernardini's claims have left conservatives in the state

02:18in an uproar over the alleged fraud,

02:21and they have called for an investigation.

02:23This is the latest controversy erupting

02:24around Somali migrants in the U.S.

02:26that is Republicans up in arms looking for answers,

02:29and at which President Trump has been front and center.

02:33Most recently, the president directed a rant

02:35at Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar,

02:37whom he said should go back to the East African country.

02:40I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is,

02:44with the little ching, the little turban.

02:47I love her.

02:48She comes in, does nothing but bitch.

02:51She's always complaining.

02:52I love her.

02:52She comes to our country,

02:54and she's always complaining about,

02:56the Constitution allows me to do this.

02:59We ought to get her the hell out.

03:02She married her brother in order to get in, right?

03:05She married her brother.

03:07In another furious tirade earlier in December,

03:09President Trump bitterly berated Somali migrants

03:12in Minnesota as garbage.

03:14When I watch what is happening in Minnesota,

03:18Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars.

03:23I don't want them in our country.

03:25Their country's no good for a reason.

03:27Their country stinks.

03:29We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.

03:33The president's outrage stems from revelations of large-scale fraud in Minnesota,

03:37the largest being the Feeding Our Future scheme,

03:40in which 78 scammers, mostly from Somalia,

03:43have been prosecuted in the COVID-era food relief program scam.

03:46The ploy, according to prosecutors,

03:48involved funneling money from state social services coffers,

03:52including at the Department of Human Services and Department of Education,

03:56to the nonprofit Feeding Our Future,

03:58and other organizations to ostensibly feed schoolchildren.

04:02Instead, the plot used the funds to splurge on the lavish lifestyles of the nonprofit's workers.

04:08According to Minnesota education officials,

04:10Feeding Our Future and its affiliated groups submitted over $500 million in claims,

04:15while House Oversight Chair James Comer alleges the true losses may have climbed toward $1 billion.

04:22The DOJ has already convicted 49 fraudsters in the scheme.

04:26Troubling reports also allege that millions of the stolen taxpayer dollars

04:30may have been funneled to Somalia-based terror group Al-Shabaab,

04:34according to counterterrorism sources.

04:35In a statement to the Post, Comer slammed Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz over the massive fraud scheme,

04:42vowing that his panel would be conducting a thorough investigation into his, quote,

04:47failure to safeguard taxpayer dollars as a result.

04:50Because of Governor Waltz's negligence, criminals, including Somali terrorists,

04:54stole nearly $1 billion from the program while children suffered, he said.

04:59As a result, the Trump administration has opened a new front in its immigration crackdown

05:04by targeting illegal Somali immigrants in Minneapolis,

05:08with a push of more than 100 ICE agents,

05:10targeting as many as 500 Somalis illegally in the city,

05:14which is home to the U.S.'s largest population from the war-torn East African nation,

05:19estimated at over 80,000, according to several reports,

05:23and is seen in videos going viral on social media.

05:25You just leave!

05:26You're Somalian, right?

05:27Yeah, I'm Somalian and I'm a United States citizen, f*** boy!

05:29Some Minnesota Somalis are pushing back.

05:31In one disturbing case, a Somali-Minnesota college student

05:34even went so far as to threaten federal agents on social media.

05:38In a viral clip, Hassan Mohamed spat out a menacing anti-ICE tirade,

05:43in which he vowed to shoot immigration agents

05:45the next time they show up in his Awatana neighborhood.

05:48I actually heard you guys pull up to Awatana, the big old,

05:52and you pulled up when I was not there?

05:54Y'all some puss-sack, s***, boy!

05:57You're gonna get popped next time I see you at Springfield whole Calvary!

06:01Yeah, boy, you guys are scared!

06:03Scared of the stingray, baby!

06:05After his clip sparked widespread backlash,

06:07Mohamed posted a handful of follow-up videos

06:10apologizing for the, quote,

06:12lapse in my judgment.

06:14According to the Department of Homeland Security,

06:16at least a dozen criminal illegal immigrants,

06:18five of whom are Somali,

06:19have been arrested during Operation Metro Surge

06:22in Minneapolis.

06:24DHS reports those arrested include

06:26child sex offenders,

06:28domestic abusers,

06:29and violent gang members.

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