Woman pleads guilty to Autism services, Feeding our Future frauds
Feds announce fraud guilty plea
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has announced the guilty plea of a man that officials believe played a role in several prominent fraud schemes. FOX 9’s Paul Blume has the details of the multi-million-dollar swindle.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Asha Hassan, the first defendant charged with defrauding Minnesota's publicly funded autism care program, has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.
She also admitted to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the massive Feeding our Future scheme.
What we know:
Hassan was the first defendant charged with defrauding Minnesota’s publicly funded autism care program.
On Thursday, she pleaded guilty to a $14 million Medicaid scheme, admitting she also stole hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars earmarked for needy children in the Feeding our Future fraud.
Prosecutors say she was not alone in double-dipping.
"Many defendants in these cases were getting money from multiple government benefit programs, many Medicaid programs," explained First U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson. "This is how these investigations grew out of Feeding our Future. I think roughly two dozen or so Feeding our Future defendants were getting money from autism clinics and that's why… that is how we learned about the autism fraud."
Dig deeper:
Hassan owned a business known as Smart Therapy LLC, supposedly set up to provide one-on-one care for children with autism.
According to court documents as well as her own admissions, Hassan and her partners approached parents in the Somali community to recruit their children — in some cases paying kickbacks to families who enrolled with Smart Therapy — and then would overbill the taxpayer-funded program or make-up services that were never provided.
As part of her guilty plea, the 29-year-old agreed to pay nearly $16 million in restitution to the U.S. government.
What's next:
Hassan’s guilty plea includes a potential prison sentence of between 70 and 87 months with a judge having the ultimate say.
Hassan will remain free and out of custody until she is formally sentenced at a later time.