From KARE-11 TV (NBC, Minneapolis),
Hennepin County Judge tosses out jury’s guilty verdict in $7.2 million home healthcare fraud case.
Jurors tell KARE 11 News their decision wasn’t difficult after seeing evidence of “obvious fraud” committed by Abdifatah Yusuf.
The way jury nullification usually works is that a jury will ignore the law and acquit a guilty defendant with whom they sympathize, an act in defiance of authority. Here we have something closer to the opposite. KARE-11 quotes the jury foreman,
“It was not a difficult decision whatsoever. The deliberation took probably four hours at most. Based off of the state’s evidence that was presented, it was beyond a reasonable doubt,” jury foreperson Ben Walfoort told KARE 11 News.
The judge, Sarah West, substituted her opinion in place of the unanimous jury who convicted the defendant.
I did not attend the trial, but having attended similar federal trials, I am of an inclination to trust the jury in such matters.
Judge West is a Democrat appointee. Her webpage has been blocked from public viewing.
I’ve been tracking fraud scandals in Minnesota and this one is No. 8 on my list. According to state court records, Yusuf’s trial took place back in August and he was convicted on six counts. It was one of the rare examples in Minnesota of state-level prosecution of Medicaid fraud.
Yusuf appealed the August jury verdicts and late last week the judge threw out the jury results and acquitted Yusuf on all counts. in a 55-page decision. On Monday, the state Attorney General appealed the lower court’s decision to the state Court of Appeals.
During the trial, the defense blamed the millions in fraud losses on Yusuf’s brother, Mohamed Yusuf. I have not been able to determine what happened to Mohamed.
It’s the old “sins of the brother” defense. Mr. Yusuf operated a home health care business with his brother under the name Promise Health Services. The judge thinks that the jury should have put all the blame on Mohamed, who wasn’t on trial in that docket.
It seems clear from court records that a massive fraud occurred with taxpayer losses likely exceeding $10 million. It is not clear that any individual has been held to account, or any money recovered. The final paragraph of Judge West’s order begins,
While the Court is troubled by the manner in which fraud was able to be perpetuated at Promise, the State’s evidence did not exclude other reasonable, rational inferences that are inconsistent with Mr. Yusuf’s guilt.
But not troubled enough to do anything about it. That job must belong to someone else.
Lesson to fraudsters, just blame it all on the brother, and you will skate.
