Somali man pleads guilty to $6 MILLION autism services fraud in Minnesota, giving kickbacks to parents

A Somali man in Minnesota who claimed he offered autism services to children but instead pocketed millions through fraudulent Medicaid claims pleaded guilty on Monday. He had been giving kickbacks to parents who enrolled their children in his fraudulent autism care service.  

Abdinajib Yussuf entered a guilty plea to $6 million in wire fraud in court. Prosecutors say he launched Star Autism Center in St. Cloud in 2020, presenting it as a facility that delivered individualized therapy for children diagnosed with autism.

Federal charging documents state that Yussuf targeted families within the local Somali community, encouraging them to sign their children up for services at Star Autism, per CBS News. In cases where children lacked an official autism diagnosis, authorities say he coordinated with a service provider to help secure eligibility so the children could qualify for treatment.

Investigators determined that Yussuf billed Medicaid for millions of dollars in services. Records show he received more than $6 million in reimbursements from the Minnesota Department of Human Services and UCare.

According to prosecutors, he funneled a portion of that money back to parents as kickbacks for enrolling their children. Officials also allege he used the proceeds to purchase a $100,000 Freightliner semi-truck and wired $200,000 to Kenya.

In 2024, the FBI searched Star Autism Center as well as Smart Therapy Center as part of the same probe. The operator of Smart Therapy previously admitted to stealing $14 million in Medicaid funds and pleaded guilty in December to one count of wire fraud.

The autism center investigation stemmed from the larger inquiry into the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. This comes as the White House has halted $259 million in federal Medicaid funding to Minnesota over concerns of rampant fraud, much of it linked to the Somali community in the state.

A report from independent reporter Nick Shirley, which went viral in December, sparked investigations into fraud around Minnesota as well as in other states. The White House has also made it a focus of policy priorities in recent months to crack down on fraud.

Yussuf was also featured in Shirley's video from December, and the reporter posted about the fraudster's guilty plea on Monday.