Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison charged a Minnesota man on January 14, 2026 with participating in a Medicaid fraud scheme connected to a state-licensed home health agency accused of bilking $3 million in taxpayer dollars. Mohamed Abdirashid Omarxeyd was slapped with eight counts of felony theft by false representation after prosecutors stated that he used his company, Guardian Home Health Services, to bill the state’s Medicaid program for services that were either never provided or were not eligible for reimbursement between 2020 and 2024.
The criminal complaint reveals that the company turned in fraudulent claims for personal care aide services, companion care, homemaking, respite care, individualized home support and other forms of community support services. State officials have called a lot of the services mentioned “high-risk” or straight up fraud. It goes on to accuse Omarxeyd and his spouse of draining more than $2 million from the company’s accounts as part of the scheme.
“Defrauding programs that provide healthcare to low-income Minnesotans is a truly despicable act,”Attorney General Ellison went on to say in a statement. He then pointed out that his office has already prosecuted over 300 Medicaid fraud cases and as a result they have recovered $80 million in restitution and penalties for these crimes.
According to Fox News, the charges against Omarxeyd come as a number of investigations targeting fraud across several Medicaid-funded programs have been launched. Several other fraud allegations are related to housing stabilization services and autism intervention programs. Many of these cases are connected to the state’s large Somali community. Prosecutors previously revealed a $250 million fraud case involving the Feeding Our Future food program.
That case alone resulted in several dozen indictments and convictions, along with helping to draw attention to fraud concerns in Minnesota. As the scandal has unfolded, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz decided not to run for a third term. Omarxeyd does not, as of this writing, have an attorney listed. His first court appearance is scheduled for February 3, 2026.
Court documents connected to the case claim that Omarxeyd encouraged his employees to “bill as much as they could to make more money regardless of whether they performed the work.” The defendant also billed clients for daily services, despite said individuals being in jail or hospitalized, thus making it impossible for them to have received care, MSN reported.
“The charges announced today are another example of our work with prosecutors to hold criminals accountable,” Minnesota Department of Human Services Inspector General James Clark went on to say. “The Minnesota DHS Office of Inspector General investigated the provider, uncovered credible evidence of fraud, referred the case to the state Attorney General’s Office and withheld payments. Today’s charges make clear that we are rooting out fraud and fighting against those who steal from the Minnesotans who rely on our services.”
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A U.S. prosecutor said this particular case is but a fraction of what they believe to be a total of $9 billion in fraud in the state. At the beginning of January, during a House Oversight Committee hearing, Republican state Rep. Walter Hudson was asked how fraud was allowed to become so widespread. “When people recognized that the system wasn’t working and they raised those concerns, those concerns were ignored and a culture suppressing raising those concerns was fostered by the Walz administration,” Hudson replied.
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