WATCH: Somali fraudster pleads guilty to bilking millions at Minnesota ‘autism’ center
Told court ‘investors provided clients as well as workers’ so business appeared legitimate
A defendant who ran an “autism” center in Minnesota, taking in millions of taxpayer dollars intended for social services programs to help children, has pleaded guilty in a $6 million fraud scheme.
Abdinajib Yussuf, who was just 22 when the scheme was launched, now is 28, and is awaiting sentencing.
It’s apparently part of the billions of dollars in social services fraud that has come under federal investigation in Minnesota amid allegations that focus on the Somali immigrant community in the state there.
Previous reports have confirmed that the schemes often would operate as Yussuf’s. He claimed investors helped him set up the business, and provided information about claiming to have provided services to many children.
In reality, those hundreds of “autism” centers actually allegedly provided few – or no – services at all. Yet they submitted paperwork claiming reimbursement for thousands of hours of services to hundreds of children.
Legislative investigators charged that of the some 500 autism centers in Minnesota, only six applied for and obtained any licensing.
And the spending on those functions exploded. State spending on “autism care” was $1 million in 2017, but exploded, under the governorship of Tim Walz, to $343 million in 2024.
A report at Not the Bee said the scandal was uncovered when independent reporter Nick Shirley documented a “Quality Learing Center” and his report went viral.
The report said in court, Yussuf confirmed a group of “investors” approached him. “The investors would have him manage an ‘autism’ center and provide him with workers/clients to make the ‘business’ look legit – at least, legit enough for the liberal white women in Tim Walz’s woke government to not come snooping,” Not the Bee confirmed.
KARE 11 confirmed the result was, “Yussuf and his co-conspirators bilked taxpayers out of more than $6 million.:
Yussuf told the court he didn’t know anyone with autism, “so his investors provided clients as well as workers, while Yussuf did the paperwork at Star Autism Center. According to court documents, the employees were unqualified family members as young as 18, and the clients were children recruited among Somali families,” the report said.
Families got kickbacks, also funded by tax money, for signing up their kids, the report said.
The problem apparently isn’t limited to Minnesota, either.
