Federal agents arrested two Minnesota women last week on charges they used a pair of autism therapy companies to steal more than $21 million from Medicaid over four years, part of what officials now describe as the largest autism-related fraud prosecution in American history.

Shamso Ahmed Hassan and Hanaan Mursal Yusuf were taken into custody on May 21 and remain in federal detention pending judicial proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a press release issued May 27. The FBI led the investigation, with Homeland Security Investigations providing assistance.

The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, alleges the two women and unnamed co-conspirators ran the scheme from May 2020 through December 2024, billing taxpayers through fraudulent claims submitted to the state's Early Intensive Development and Behavioral Intervention program, known as EIDBI, which funds autism services through Medicaid.

How the scheme allegedly worked

Hassan held beneficial ownership of two companies at the center of the case: Smart Therapy Center LLC and Star Autism Center LLC. She also served as lead biller for Smart Therapy Center, responsible for submitting claims directly to Medicaid. According to the DHS press release:

"Through both companies, the defendants carried out a scheme to defraud a health care benefit program of approximately $21.1 million by submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicaid. This scheme took place over the course of more than four years, from May of 2020 to December of 2024."

The mechanics went beyond simple overbilling. The federal indictment describes an elaborate kickback operation in which the defendants paid parents between $300 and $1,500 per month per child to keep them enrolled in the program. To hide the payments, the conspirators wrote checks to family members and employees, instructed them to cash the checks, and handed the money to parents in cash.

They even developed internal code. The indictment states that Hassan, Yusuf, and their co-conspirators referred to the illegal kickback payments using the code word "computer."

Federal prosecutors also allege that some of the stolen funds were transferred overseas, including to Kenya.

Part of a much larger fraud network

The $21 million case is only one piece of a far broader prosecution. The Washington Examiner reported that the Department of Justice has charged 15 defendants in total for stealing more than $90 million from Minnesota Medicaid and social service programs. The two autism clinics at the center of this case, Smart Therapy and Star Autism, allegedly billed Medicaid $46 million, of which $21 million was actually paid out.

One detail stands out. Hassan is reportedly married to Asha Farhan Hassan, who was charged separately in September 2025 with a $14 million autism fraud scheme that investigators have linked to the Feeding Our Future fraud case, the massive pandemic-era nutrition program scandal that has already produced lengthy federal prison sentences.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald did not mince words when describing the scope of the problem. As Fox News reported, the DOJ characterized the prosecution as the "largest autism fraud bust in American history."

McDonald told reporters:

"These defendants treated Minnesota-run programs as their personal piggy bank. The fraud here in Minnesota is shocking."

He added a warning that the crackdown was far from over:

"This is just the beginning. The Department of Justice will continue expanding our reach across the country to pursue all fraud, no matter how large, no matter how small, no matter how hard."

A pattern Minnesota can no longer ignore

The DHS confirmed that both Hassan and Yusuf are U.S. citizens. Hassan became a citizen through naturalization. Their arrests add to a growing list of federal fraud prosecutions centered in Minnesota, a state that has drawn sustained scrutiny for weaknesses in its oversight of public benefit programs.

The Feeding Our Future case alone resulted in convictions tied to a $250 million scheme that exploited federal child nutrition funds. Now, prosecutors say the same community networks that enabled that fraud extended into autism therapy billing.

The New York Post reported that parents in the broader scheme faked autism diagnoses in their own children to qualify for kickback payments, a detail that underscores just how deeply the alleged corruption reached into the families enrolled in these programs.

Minnesota's EIDBI program was designed to help children with autism receive intensive behavioral therapy. Instead, prosecutors allege, it became a pipeline for fraud, with fake claims, cash kickbacks, coded language, and overseas wire transfers replacing legitimate care.

The broader political context is impossible to miss. Federal investigators have been probing allegations of fraud connected to Minnesota's Somali community for years, with cases touching on immigration, nutrition programs, and now healthcare billing.

The White House has signaled that these investigations are a priority. Vice President Vance has publicly stated the administration's intent to pursue accountability for alleged fraud tied to Minnesota's public benefit systems, and the DOJ's expanding caseload suggests those were not empty words.

Open questions remain

Several important details remain unclear. The indictment references unnamed co-conspirators, but their identities and the total number of people involved have not been disclosed. It is also unknown how many children were enrolled in the fraudulent billing scheme, or whether any of the parents who received kickback payments will face charges of their own.

The specific criminal statutes and counts in the indictment have not been detailed in public reporting. Nor has the government explained how the scheme was first detected, whether through internal audits, whistleblower tips, or broader investigative work stemming from Feeding Our Future.

What is clear is the scale. More than $90 million in alleged theft from programs meant to serve disabled children. Fifteen defendants and counting. And a state government that, for years, either could not or would not catch the fraud running through its own systems.

Allegations of financial misconduct continue to surface across multiple investigations in the state, raising a straightforward question: How many billions in taxpayer money must vanish before Minnesota fixes the front door?

Programs built to help vulnerable children became, allegedly, a cash machine for people willing to fake diagnoses, pay off parents, and wire the proceeds overseas. If that doesn't concentrate the mind of every state official responsible for program oversight, nothing will.