This browser does not support the Video element.
Woman connected to Feeding Our Future in autism fraud case
A woman charged with fraudulently charging an autism program has been connected to the Feeding Our Future case by investigators. FOX 9's Corin Hoggard has the full report.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Federal prosecutors have now filed the first fraud case related to an investigation of Minnesota autism centers.
It's the first connection between fraud investigations, tying an autism center to Feeding Our Future.
READ MORE: First person charged in autism fraud case connected to Feeding Our Future investigation
Feeding our fraud
This browser does not support the Video element.
Person charged in autism fraud case connected to Feeding Our Future
The first defendant in an alleged fraud case targeting a state autism program has been charged. Asha Farhan Hassan, 28, is facing wire fraud charges.
Connected cases:
Asha Farhan Hassan is the 76th feeding our future defendant and the first autism center defendant, but based on what we’ve heard from interim U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson and even from Hassan’s attorney, there will be more.
And hers won’t last long.
The case against her says Hassan formed Smart Therapy Centers as an autism service provider with some secret partners.
It says the company recruited families to sign up their kids and then made sure they got an autism diagnosis.
After that, they billed Medicaid for the maximum possible without providing much of anything in the way of services.
And as that escalated, the company also started billing for feeding kids through Feeding Our Future.
"There was a lot of crossover," said defense attorney Ryan Pacyga. "She's sort of a unique defendant that way."
READ MORE: 8 federally charged in massive Minnesota Housing Stabilization Services fraud scheme
Best intentions go awry?
Kicking back:
Pacyga says Hassan initially set out to do good, but he says a lot of well-meaning people ended up entangled in loopholes that led to easy money.
Prosecutors say she and her co-owners hired uneducated and untrained friends and family, and paid kickbacks to the parents — even bidding against other supposed autism centers to claim kids.
"You've got members of the public taking advantage of it," Pacyga said. "You've got some business owners taking advantage of it, you got the government doing who knows what to allow it to continue happening, and it's like the perfect storm."
Smart Therapy Centers billed for more than $14 million in autism services and claimed to be feeding up to 1,200 kids every day of the week for almost $500,000 more in government funding.
It all led to a wire fraud charge against Hassan, which she seems ready to admit.
"Sometimes you got to know when to hold them and you got to know when to fold them," Pacyga said. "And she wanted to make it right, that was in her heart. She knew that she had done some wrong."
Hassan could enter a guilty plea within a couple of weeks.
Closed fraud spigot?:
Meanwhile, the state has changed its approach to funding those programs, but only recently.
Fraud totals gathered by investigators are now pushing $300 million with a lot more charges still expected in this case and the housing stabilization services.