Muhammad Omar, 32, of Roseville, Minnesota, drew attention after the FBI reported that Omar leaped from a fourth-floor balcony to flee agents, generating national attention. Captured several hours afterward, he faced additional allegations at his court appearance: a federal prosecutor told the judge that Omar had gone to a relative's home and arranged for someone to get rid of his car, and that Medicaid money had allegedly been used to acquire real estate in Kenya. Together with Ibrahim Abdi, Omar faces allegations of siphoning $3.2 million from the housing program through two home health care businesses. Prosecutors say that for roughly four months in late 2023, the pair submitted claims for a client who had already died, according to CBS News.
An autism-related scheme is also alleged, in which two defendants are said to have steered families toward autism diagnoses for their children irrespective of any clinical basis, rewarding those families with kickbacks while submitting false claims to the state for care that was never actually given. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called it "the largest autism fraud bust in American history," according to CBS News.
Since April 1, the DOJ's fraud division has logged 450 enforcement actions across the country, officials said, with 11 prosecutors currently stationed in Minnesota. Going forward, the department plans to broaden its Midwest healthcare fraud strike force and bring on 15 additional attorneys dedicated to Medicaid fraud cases around the country. In a related development, a pair of Philadelphia men who had been charged in connection with the same Minnesota housing program entered wire fraud guilty pleas, according to court records.
