Maine Suspends Payments to Somali Charity after $1M in Fraud Uncovered by Audits:
Officials in Maine have suspended state Medicaid payments to a Somali-run charity after more than a million dollars in possible fraud was discovered in several audits of the charity’s services.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has cancelled MaineCare payments to Gateway Community Services after the audits found that the charity over billed the state for $1,068,598 from March 2021 through December 2022. The cash was supposedly to cover the costs of “interpreting services” to Somali migrants, the Bangor Daily News reported.
This same organization has been under investigation before. Gateway reportedly overbilled for more than $600,000 between 2015 and 2018, and is still under a cloud of suspicion for other violations found during a third state audit completed in 2024.
The suspension of funding comes on the tail of the red flags thrown up about the charity by U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House oversight committee, who warned the U.S. Treasury of welfare fraud being committed by Gateway.
Gateway was founded in 2015 by Somali migrant Abdullahi Ali who became the subject of scrutiny for launching a 2024 bid to run for president of Jubaland, an autonomous region in the southern part of Somalia, at the same time his Gateway Services charity was defrauding the state of a million in improperly billed services.
Gateway was not only staffed and run by Somali migrants, though. The agency also has connections to a number of prominent Democrats in Maine, including Democrat State Senator Chloe Maxmin, and Democrat strategists Joanne D’Arcangelo and B.J. McCollister, the latter of whom served in the Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign for the White House and a chief of staff to Maine Democrat Senate President Troy Jackson. --->READ MORE HERE
Maine stops payments to embattled health care provider facing fraud allegations:
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services moved Tuesday to halt MaineCare payments to a Portland company that serves immigrants by asserting it had improperly billed for interpreting services and seeking to claw back more than $1 million.
The company, Gateway Community Services, received a notice of violation Tuesday from the department along with a notification that it was suspending payments while investigating “credible allegations of fraud.” The department’s unit reviewed 15,000 claims made to Gateway between March 2021 and December 2022 and is seeking to recoup nearly $1.1 million.
“The Department will continue to hold providers to the highest standards and ensure accountability in the use of public funds,” department spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said.
This is the third notice of violation against Gateway. Previous reviews of payments to Gateway found that between 2015 to 2018 it was overpaid about $660,000. Another review from 2024 is still pending an appeal. Tuesday’s move marked a significant escalation.
It came a day after U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House oversight committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury that flagged Gateway along with a host of current and former employees as potential targets of a broader welfare fraud investigation being conducted by the panel.
Comer’s letter directly tied for the first time Gateway to the committee’s investigation that has largely been focused on Minnesota. Among those listed from Gateway include founder Abdullahi Ali and state Rep. Deqa Dhalac, D-South Portland, a former Gateway employee.
Gateway’s lawyer, Pawel Bincyzk, confirmed earlier in the day that the company had received the notices but has little information on what the allegations are based on. --->READ MORE HERE
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