Four Minnesota men plead guilty in $2.2 million Medicaid fraud scheme

Four Minnesota men have pleaded guilty to defrauding the state’s Housing Stabilization Services program of approximately $2.2 million and using artificial intelligence to fabricate records when asked to substantiate their claims, according to court documents.

Moktar Hassan Aden, 31, Mustafa Dayib Ali, 29, Khalid Ahmed Dayib, 26, and Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, 27, all from the Twin Cities area, established Brilliant Minds Services LLC in St. Paul’s Griggs-Midway Building and enrolled the company as a Medicaid program provider, court documents state. The men promised to help people with disabilities — including seniors and individuals with mental illnesses and substance use disorders — find and maintain housing through the now-defunct HSS program, prosecutors said.

Instead of providing those services, the defendants submitted thousands of claims to Medicaid for assistance that was never rendered or significantly inflated claims to obtain higher reimbursements, according to the Justice Department. The four men signed up approximately 350 people for HSS benefits and billed the program despite doing nothing to assist those Medicaid recipients, prosecutors said. When asked to provide supporting documentation for their claims, the defendants used ChatGPT to fabricate records in an attempt to conceal the theft, according to court documents. From April 2022 through April 2025, they fraudulently obtained approximately $2.2 million from Minnesota Medicaid for services they claimed to have provided to those recipients, the department said.

In separate hearings held between July 7 and July 23, 2026, each defendant pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, according to prosecutors. They each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Sentencing dates have not been set, and a federal district court judge will determine each sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

“These defendants corruptly exploited vulnerable people and a vulnerable program to enrich themselves,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “They have now admitted their fraudulent conduct and will face justice for their crimes.”

U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel N. Rosen said the guilty pleas “underscore my office’s commitment to holding accountable those who exploit public programs.”

The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Trial Attorney Raymond E. Beckering III of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Murphy for the District of Minnesota are prosecuting it.

The case is part of an ongoing collaboration between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota and the Health Care Fraud Strike Force. Since 2007, the Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion, according to the department.