Abdifatah Yusuf found guilty of bilking Medicaid program out of over $7.2 million
Blaine man owned agency that operated out of a mailbox yet claimed to provide over millions in Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) to Medicaid recipients
August 12, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that today his office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) obtained guilty verdicts at the criminal trial of Abdifatah Yusuf in Hennepin County. A jury found Yusuf guilty of six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle (over $35,000). The jury also found multiple aggravating factors existed to support an upward departure from the Minnesota sentencing guidelines. Yusuf will be sentenced before the Honorable Sarah S. West at a later date to be set by the Court.
In June 2024, Attorney General Ellison’s MFCU charged Yusuf with bilking the Minnesota Medical Assistance (Medicaid) program through his agency, Promise Health Services, LLC. Promise claimed to provide home and community based (waivered) services, but it lacked any office building and operated for years out of a mailbox. Yusuf and his family members fraudulently obtained Medicaid funds by billing for services not provided, services that were billed based on false documentation, services that were overbilled, services that were billed but lacked any documentation to support the services, and kickbacks provided to recipients to induce them to receive “services” from the agency.
While Yusuf operated Promise, the agency stole over $7 million. MFCU investigators determined that Yusuf frequently used the money stolen from the Medicaid program to fund a lavish lifestyle for himself and his family, including directing over $1 million from the Promise business account into Yusuf’s personal account and withdrawing over $387,000 in cash. Yusuf and his wife also spent more than $22,000 at furniture stores despite Promise lacking any physical office space, spent over $42,000 at luxury automotive dealers, and over $80,000 at luxury clothing stores including Coach, Canada Goose, Michael Kors, Third Degree Heat, Nike, and Nordstrom.
“Stealing money meant for poor people’s healthcare and using it to buy luxury cars and designer clothes is as shameful and disgraceful as it gets,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison. “Minnesotans believe in helping our neighbors, but we have no patience for fraudsters like Abdifatah Yusuf who abuse that generosity to enrich themselves. I am pleased that my office convicted Yusuf, and I am committed to recovering as much of the money he stole from taxpayers as possible.”
This case was the product of a joint investigation by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) in the Office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (DHHS/OIG). The agencies received substantial assistance from the Minnesota Commerce Fraud Bureau’s fraud investigators (now housed in the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s State Fraud Unit), and the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Forensic Lab. The Minnesota MFCU in the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office prosecuted the case.
Attorney General Ellison’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit works to uncover, investigate, and prosecute individuals or organizations that steal from Medicaid and that exploit, neglect, or abuse vulnerable victims. The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit receives 75% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $4,409,872 for Federal fiscal year (FY)2025. The remaining 25%, totaling $1,469,955 for FY 2025, is funded by the State of Minnesota.
This past legislative session, Attorney General Ellison asked the Legislature for enhanced funding for the MFCU and for additional tools to better investigate and prosecute its cases, including changes to its subpoena authority that would be consistent with the authority county attorney’s have when conducting their investigations. Attorney General Ellison’s funding request would have allowed the Office to hire nine more staff in the MFCU, including seven new investigators and a new prosecutor. This request would have brought MFCU staffing levels in line with those of comparable states, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. An HHS OIG audit has also found that Minnesota’s MFCU already punches above its weight: from 2020–22, Minnesota won the most convictions for provider fraud when compared with similarly sized states.
Unfortunately, and despite 75% of the funding for these additional positions coming from the federal government, the Legislature denied Attorney General Ellison’s request to fund any new MFCU positions. The Legislature also did not enact any changes to enhance the MFCU’s authority to investigate and prosecute fraud cases, including its request for subpoena power matching that given to county attorney’s and penalties for medical assistance fraud that are consistent with penalties for other theft crimes codified in Minn. Stat. § 609.52.
