Four Twin Cities men pleaded guilty to defrauding Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services program out of approximately $2.2 million and hiding the scheme by using artificial intelligence tools to fabricate records when questioned by insurance companies, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
Moktar Hassan Aden, 31, Mustafa Dayib Ali, 29, Khalid Ahmed Dayib, 26, and Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, 27 set up Brilliant Minds Services LLC in the Griggs-Midway Building in St. Paul, Minnesota, and enrolled the business as a Medicaid program provider, according to the plea agreement.
The fraud scheme “highlights a burgeoning trend of fraudsters” using AI to “further a fraud scheme targeting health care programs in Minnesota and around the country,” according to the DOJ’s announcement.
“These defendants corruptly exploited vulnerable people and a vulnerable program to enrich themselves,” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said in a statement.“Taxpayer dollars designed to provide shelter and support for the homeless and needy instead went to the pockets of these men. They have now admitted their fraudulent conduct and will face justice for their crimes. In the meantime, our work to stamp out fraud in Minnesota will continue in abandon.”
When reached for comment, the DOJ referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to its press release from Friday.
The Department announced in September 2025 criminal indictments linked to HSS program fraud against Aden, Ali, Dayib, Mohamed, as well as Christopher Adesoji Falade, Emmanuel Oluwademilade Falade, Asad Ahmed Adow, and Anwar Ahmed Adow, six of whom are part of the Somali community in Minnesota, City Journal reported, citing a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Minnesota’s Department of Human Services announced in November 2025 that the state would terminate the HSS program due to credible allegations of fraud, MPR News reported.
“The defendant and others thereafter purported to service individuals through [Brilliant] Minds from an office suite in the Griggs-Midway Building in St. Paul, Minnesota,” per the court documents. “Ultimately, the defendant and the other owners of [Brilliant] Minds claimed to provide housing stabilization services approximately 350 different beneficiaries totaling $2,253.385.06; however, Brilliant Minds did not perform all of the total claimed services, instead billing for services not provided and inflating the amount of time for services actually provided.”
In order to document services “that did not always occur or to inflate the time of services provided,” employees at Brilliant Minds “fabricated client notes,” according to court documents.
The defendants also “devised and carried out a scheme to defraud federally funded health care benefits collected within Minnesota’s Housing Stability Services Program,” according to the indictment. “That was a program designed to help people with disabilities and addictions find and maintain housing. Rather than provide such help, the defendants obtained and misappropriated millions of dollars in program funds that were intended as reimbursements for services provided to those people.”
“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.”
“Their guilty pleas underscore my office’s commitment to holding accountable those who exploit public programs,” Rosen continued.
The announcement comes just days after the Trump administration announced Tuesday that it is deferring more than $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota as part of its nationwide “war on fraud.”
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