DOJ Uncovers Nearly $30 Million in Newly Charged Benefits Fraud in Minnesota Enforcement Surge: 13 Defendants, Nearly $83 Million in Intended Losses
The Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota on October 30 announced a series of enforcement actions targeting fraud involving taxpayer-funded Medicaid and SNAP programs.
Between September 30 and today, the two offices have charged, convicted, or sentenced 13 defendants whose schemes caused nearly $83 million in intended losses to the federal government, including approximately $29.1 million in fraud uncovered in the newly charged cases. This year alone, the Justice Department has issued over 1,000 subpoenas and executed over 40 premises warrants to uncover fraud in Minnesota.
"Minnesota is the epicenter for fraud in America," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter. "Through the Minnesota Fraud Task Force we are systematically dismantling schemes preying on Americans. Backed by more than a thousand subpoenas and 40 warrants, the message is simple: No one stealing from taxpayer-funded programs is safe."
Newly charged cases include Habiba Mohamed, 58, charged in a $19.1 million scheme to defraud the Minnesota Medicaid EIDBI autism therapy program; Faiza Osman Ahmed, 41, charged in an approximately $10 million scheme across multiple Medicaid programs; Feisal Mohamed Elmi, 46, charged in an $8.2 million EIDBI scheme; and Emily Marice Ravits, 74, charged in a $7.7 million scheme. An indictment is merely an allegation, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Convictions and sentences in the same period include Salim Ahmed Said, sentenced on October 28 to 360 months in prison for his role in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, and Said Farah, sentenced on October 30 to 78 months and a $40,000 fine for bribing a juror with $200,000 in cash.
In May, the Fraud Division's Health Care Fraud Strike Force charged 15 defendants in the largest Medicaid fraud takedown in state history, and over the past 110 days courts have imposed approximately 550 months of imprisonment on defendants in Minnesota fraud schemes.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯市中心天际线。Tony Webster 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Downtown Minneapolis skyline, Minnesota. Photo by Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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