Guilty Pleas Entered At ‘Brilliant Minds’ Medicare Fraud Trial

Four men from the Twin Cities have pleaded guilty to defrauding Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services program of roughly $2.2 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Prosecutors said the men also used artificial intelligence tools to create false records after insurance companies began questioning their claims.

The defendants are Moktar Hassan Aden, 31; Mustafa Dayib Ali, 29; Khalid Ahmed Dayib, 26; and Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, 27. According to their plea agreements, the men created Brilliant Minds Services LLC, which operated from the Griggs-Midway Building in St. Paul, and enrolled the company as a Medicaid provider.

The Housing Stabilization Services program was intended to help people with disabilities, mental health conditions and substance-use disorders find and maintain stable housing. Prosecutors said the defendants instead used the program to collect millions of dollars for services that were either never provided or were significantly overstated.

Court records show that Brilliant Minds claimed to have served about 350 beneficiaries and billed the program a total of $2,253,385.06. However, the company did not provide all of the services listed in its claims. In some cases, employees billed for work that never happened. In others, they exaggerated the amount of time spent helping clients.

To support those claims, employees fabricated client notes documenting services that did not occur or inflating the time spent on services that were actually provided. The Justice Department said the case reflects a growing trend in which fraud suspects use artificial intelligence to generate false documentation and conceal illegal billing practices.

“These defendants corruptly exploited vulnerable people and a vulnerable program to enrich themselves,” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said in a statement. He added that taxpayer money intended to support homeless and vulnerable residents instead went into the defendants’ pockets.

McDonald said the guilty pleas would allow the defendants to be held accountable while federal authorities continue their efforts to investigate fraud in Minnesota.

The Justice Department declined to provide additional comment and referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to its Friday press release.

Federal authorities first announced criminal charges connected to alleged Housing Stabilization Services fraud in September 2025. In addition to Aden, Ali, Dayib and Mohamed, the indictments named Christopher Adesoji Falade, Emmanuel Oluwademilade Falade, Asad Ahmed Adow and Anwar Ahmed Adow.

City Journal reported, citing a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, that six of the eight defendants were members of Minnesota’s Somali community.

In November 2025, the Minnesota Department of Human Services announced that it would end the Housing Stabilization Services program after officials identified credible allegations of widespread fraud, according to MPR News.

Prosecutors said the defendants carried out a deliberate scheme to steal from a federally funded health care program. Rather than use the money to help people with disabilities and addictions secure housing, they allegedly diverted the funds for their own benefit.

“Medicaid fraud is a serious offense with real consequences,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen said in a statement. “These defendants stole funds intended to support vulnerable Minnesotans who rely on housing and recovery services.”

Rosen said the guilty pleas demonstrate his office’s commitment to prosecuting people who exploit public assistance programs.

The announcement came only days after the Trump administration said it would defer more than $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota as part of a broader nationwide campaign against fraud.

The Western Journal