DOJ Levels Fraud Charges in $90M Scheme in Minnesota

The Department of Justice has released an indictment charging several individuals with more than $90 million in fraud in Minnesota.

The Department of Justice announced criminal charges against 15 defendants in Minnesota on Thursday, alleging schemes that targeted more than $90 million in taxpayer funds across state-managed Medicaid programs.

Colin McDonald, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, said the cases involve seven Minnesota-run Medicaid programs that prosecutors say were “systematically pilfered by fraudsters” who treated taxpayer-funded services as “their personal piggy bank.”

McDonald noted that Minnesota’s housing stabilization services program, which was designed to help homeless residents find and keep housing, was one of the starkest examples. The program was initially estimated in 2020 to cost about $2.5 million per year, but ballooned to more than $104 million by 2024, which McDonald attributed to fraud.

Prosecutors also cited what they described as suspicious growth in other taxpayer-funded programs, including an autism program that McDonald said rose from $600,000 in costs six years ago to more than $400 million.