Minneapolis Autism Center CEO Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Says He Never Met a Person With the Condition

The Minneapolis CEO of a center to serve patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder reportedly confessed that he did not know a single person with autism while pleading guilty to federal fraud charges Monday.

The Justice Department charged Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, 27, with wire fraud in December for his role as president and CEO of Star Autism Center LLC, which claimed to provide “necessary one-on-one therapy to children with autism.”

The DOJ accused him and his team of raking in more than $6 million through fraudulent claims to the Minnesota government’s Early Intensive Development and Behavioral Intervention program.

Yussuf pleaded guilty earlier this week, admitting that he did not know any individuals with autism, KARE reported. Yussuf may face five years in prison.

The Autism Fraud

From 2020 through December 2024, Yussuf led the company, according to the Justice Department. Star Autism allegedly employed 18- or 19-year-old relatives with no formal education beyond high school and no training related to autism as “behavioral technicians.”

The company approached Minnesota parents of Somali descent to “recruit” their children to the center and qualify them for autism services, regardless of whether the children had autism.

The center allegedly paid monthly cash kickbacks to the parents of enrolled children. Yussuf and his team submitted millions in claims for Medicaid reimbursement, many of which were “fraudulently inflated, billed without providers’ knowledge, and for services that were not actually provided,” according to the Justice Department.

Fraud Scandals

This autism scandal comes on the heels of multiple fraud scandals in Minnesota involving members of the Somali community.

The Minneapolis nonprofit Feeding Our Future reported fake food distribution sites while collecting federal child nutrition assistance in a $250 million fraud scheme. The office of U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen has charged at least 79 defendants connected to the scheme, and 56 of them have pleaded guilty.

Authorities have also filed charges in a $14 million fraud case involving an autism program and a multi-million dollar fraud case involving housing stabilization services.

One federal prosecutor has estimated Medicaid fraud in the state to have exceeded $9 billion.

According to the Associated Press, around 89% of the defendants in the wide-ranging fraud cases trace their descent to Somali immigrants. Minnesota state Rep. Kristen Robbins, a Republican, previously told The Daily Signal that while Somalis make up a majority of defendants in the cases, “some of the best whistleblowers have come from the Somali community.”

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