A Minnesota judge is under scrutiny after overturning a jury’s guilty verdict against a couple accused of running a $7.2 million Medicaid fraud scheme funded by taxpayer money.
Abdifatah Yusuf and his wife, Lul Ahmed, were charged in June 2024 after Minnesota’s Attorney General’s Office alleged they stole $7.2 million from the state’s Medicaid program while operating a home healthcare company that had no actual office and, for years, ran “out of a mailbox.”
Prosecutors said Yusuf billed Medicaid for services that were never provided and overbilled for others that lacked proper documentation. They allege he used the proceeds to bankroll a “lavish lifestyle,” including major shopping trips at high-end retailers such as Coach, Canada Goose, Michael Kors, Third Degree Heat, Nike, and Nordstrom.
According to the attorney general’s office, Yusuf moved more than $1 million from the business account into his personal account and withdrew over $387,000 in cash.
In August, a jury found Yusuf guilty on six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle over $35,000. But in November, Judge Sarah West threw out the verdict, KARE reported.
In her written decision, West said the case “relied heavily on circumstantial evidence” and that prosecutors had not eliminated other “reasonable inferences.” Still, she noted she was “troubled by the manner in which fraud was able to be perpetuated at Promise Health.”
Minnesota State Rep. Kristin Robbins said she was stunned to learn the jury’s decision had been reversed.
“I was stunned. We want to strengthen state law so that we can get prosecutions out of these cases. Because clearly a jury thought he was guilty,” Robbins said.
The jury foreperson, Ben Walfoort, told KARE that the panel did not struggle with the decision to convict and expressed disbelief at the judge’s ruling.
“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,” Walfoort said. “I am shocked. I’m shocked based off of all of the evidence that was presented to us and the obvious guilt that we saw based off of the said evidence.”
Another juror told the outlet that “we all came to an agreement pretty easily” on the guilty verdict.
Yusuf’s attorney, Ian Birrell, praised West’s move and insisted his client was wrongly targeted.
“Judge West’s ruling affirms what we have maintained from the beginning: our client Mr. Yusuf was wrongfully accused and did not commit fraud or racketeering. The Court’s decision to enter judgments of acquittal on all charges reflects the fundamental principle that justice requires both fairness and proof. We appreciate the Court’s careful attention to the evidence and the law,” Birrell said, according to KARE.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, led by Democrat Keith Ellison, has appealed West’s decision to overturn the conviction.
Minnesota has been wrestling with high-profile fraud scandals in recent years, including the Feeding Our Future case, which involved hundreds of millions of dollars in allegedly misused COVID-19 funds. The allegations in Yusuf’s case are tied to Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, as well as Feeding Our Future and other organizations.
On Nov. 21, President Donald Trump terminated deportation protections for Somalis in Minnesota, claiming that “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing.” His move came after a report from the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, alleged that millions of dollars connected to the Feeding Our Future scheme were funneled to Al-Shabaab, a Somali terror group.
