11 people charged with defrauding Minnesota Medicaid program

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Attorney General's Office has charged 11 people with defrauding Minnesota's Medicaid program of more than $800,000.

According to Attorney General Keith Ellison's Office, the charges involve nine different cases and bring the number of people charged with Medicaid fraud to 21, amounting to $3 million. this week.

On Tuesday, Ellison filed 76 criminal charges against 10 defendants in a case involving the owner, managers, and employees of comprehensive home care facility Chappy’s Golden Shores in Hill City. The charges in that case include manslaughter, assault, neglect, racketeering, theft of over $2.1 million of Medicaid funds, operating a comprehensive home-care facility without a license, concealing criminal proceeds, perjury, and obstruction of the State’s criminal investigation.

Among those charged Friday were 33-year-old Kaldeq Yusuf, of Hopkins, and 39-year-old Abdifatah Ali, of Eagan, who owned and managed Diversity Home Health Care, Inc. According to the Attorney General's Office, the two stole the identities of multiple PCAs and used them to report thousands of hours of services that were not rendered. They also arranged unlawful kickback agreements in which PCAs and recipients completed timesheets for services that were not provided, then split the PCAs’ paychecks. Diversity Home Health received over $400,000 in Medicaid funds from the fraudulent schemes. 

The others charged include 52-year-old ZamZam Shoodeh and 55-year-old Rashid Mohamoud of St. Paul, who owned and managed Care Home Health, Inc. Over a two-and-half-year time period, Shoodeh and Mohamoud stole $260,000 from the Medicaid program by billing for PCA services that were not provided, sometimes using the identities of PCAs who no longer worked for Care. They also directed clients to pre-sign blank timesheets and paid them thousands of dollars of illegal kickbacks.  

The Attorney General's Office also charged 57-year-old Nadine Royter of Plymouth, an owner of Willow Grove Family Dental. Officials said Royter billed for over $100,000 of services using the identity of a dentist who had resigned from Willow Grove due to concerns with Royter’s unethical business practices. 

The others charged Friday include Noah Lee, 52, of Brooklyn Park; Sheronda Boyland, 37, of Minneapolis; Anthony Sims, 53, of St. Paul; Darrell Clemons, 37, of Brooklyn Park; Ethel Reyes, 27, of Burnsville; and Aretha Cheatham, 36, of Calumet Park, Illinois.