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MINNEAPOLIS — In August 2020, Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf was 22 years old and had dropped out of St. Cloud Technical College.
He says a group of “investors” approached him about a need for autism medical services for children in the St. Cloud area. So Yussuf registered Star Autism Center with the Minnesota Secretary of State, and that same day, enrolled it as a provider with the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) program through the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
Over the course of the next four years, Yussuf and his co-conspirators bilked taxpayers out of more than $6 million.
At his plea hearing on Monday, Yussuf claimed he didn’t know anyone with autism, so his investors provided clients as well as workers, while Yussuf did the paperwork at Star Autism Center. According to court documents, the employees were unqualified family members as young as 18, and the clients were children recruited among Somali families. The families received kickbacks in return for signing up their kids. Many did not actually have autism, so Yussuf admitted Star Autism Center fraudulently received those diagnoses.
By pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud, Yussuf faces about five years in prison when he is eventually sentenced. Prosecutors said in the hearing that they plan to indict his “investors.”