2 charged in DOJ's Medicaid fraud case appear in court
Fifteen people are accused of stealing more than $90 million in taxpayer dollars in various fraud schemes impacting multiple Minnesota Medicaid programs, including one that the fraud crisis effectively wiped out.
According to prosecutors, eight of the defendants took money from Housing Stabilization Services. It was designed to reimburse providers who helped get seniors or people with disabilities into steady housing. According to prosecutors, the eight people essentially lied about the services they provided and instead redirected HSS dollars for personal use. Minnesota shut down the program last October as a direct result of widespread fraud.
Two of the defendants appeared in court on Friday for a routine initial appearance before a judge, including 32-year-old Muhammad Omar of Roseville, Minnesota, and 45-year-old Sharmaine Meadows of Lake Elmo, Minnesota.
Omar made national headlines on Thursday when the FBI said he jumped from a fourth-story balcony in an attempt to evade arrest. He was brought into custody hours later, with a federal prosecutor revealing in court that Omar drove to a cousin's house and asked someone to ditch the vehicle elsewhere. He has family abroad, the prosecutor said, and allegedly used Medicaid dollars to buy property in Kenya. He'll remain in custody ahead of a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Omar and a partner, Ibrahim Abdi, are accused of fraudulently taking $3.2 million from HSS for operations at North Home Health Care LLC in Fridley, Minnesota and South Home Health Care LLC in Roseville. In one instance, for a period of about four months in late 2023, prosecutors say Omar and Abdi billed HSS for providing services to a recipient who was dead.
In Meadows' case, her defense attorney, Peter Wold, firmly denies that she stole any money. The indictment against her states that she took nearly $4 million from HSS while lying about services rendered. Wold told WCCO his client has housed "hundreds" of people in need while using HSS legitimately.
"Sharmaine is an honest, hardworking individual," Wold said, calling the allegations against her "hilarious."
Not everyone charged is a Minnesotan. Deborah Hodges, Candice Langley and Cynthia Allen are all accused of stealing from HSS. All three are from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It's not the first time that alleged fraudsters committed crimes in Minnesota from homes in the City of Brotherly Love; in fact, prosecutors say that Allen became interested in HSS in 2021 when someone told her the program presented a "lucrative opportunity."
The other programs involved medical and autism services, including charges that amount to what prosecutors described as the largest autism fraud scheme ever handled by the U.S. Department of Justice.