is staggering. So said First Assistanted United States Attorney Joe Thompson at an intense press conference at the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. It concluded at 12:45 (Central) this afternoon. I walked in with the cameraman from KARE 11 who told me it would be live streamed and then uploaded to the KARE 11 YouTube channel. I have posted the video below. If you have been following our coverage of the Mountains O’ Fraud committed by a large cast of almost exclusively Somali perpetrators under the averted gaze of Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, please take it in.
Mr. Thompson announced charges against six defendants in cases arising from fraud on Minnesota’s “waivered” Medicaid programs. The best is yet to come, so to speak, as the United States Attorney continues to investigate frauds that he estimates may total half of the $18 billion spent on these programs since 2018.
At the end of the press conference I asked Mr. Thompson if the ethnic cast of perpetrators in the uncharged cases matches that of the charged cases — i.e., overwhelmingly Somali. His answer was “Yes.” Not a word was heard on this crushing point from anyone other than your humble correspondent. Mr. Thompson is an ucommonly straightforward public official. It should be noted that he is a hometown hero.
The United States Attorney has posted a detailed press release covering today’s events. Two of the defendants charged today are implicated in a case of Fraud Tourism:
[Anthony Waddell] Jefferson and [Lester] Brown devised and carried out a scheme to defraud Minnesota’s Housing Stability Services Program. Jefferson and Brown live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jefferson and Brown heard that Minnesota’s HSS Program was a good opportunity to make money. Jefferson, Brown, and three of their associates decided to become Minnesota HSS Providers, despite living on the other side of the country and having no network in or connections to Minnesota or its communities. Ultimately, their sole connection to Minnesota was their fraudulent participation in the Housing Stabilization Services Program.
Word that the getting was good reached all the way to Philadelphia, but supposedly not to the offices of Walz or Ellison in St. Paul. What a complete and utter farce.
In the package of documents supplied to us at the briefing, by far the most important is an unsealed search warrant executed today in one of the cases under investigation. The suspected fraud in this case involved Minnesota’s Integrated Community Supports Medicaid program.
The ICS program has seen explosive growth over the five years since it began in 2021. After paying out a total of approximately $4.6 million in 2021, the program has grown to cost more than $170 million in 2024. In all, claims data shows that the Medicaid system has paid out more than $400 million for ICS services since 2021. This follows the model of the fraud uncovered so far in Minnesota’s waivered Medicaid programs.
See the numbers involved in programs under investigation as set forth in section III. of the affidavit underlying the search warrant. The prosecutors are sending a message. Attention must be paid.
Ultimate Home Health Services search warrant by Scott Johnson
