Smart Therapy Center, on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, was incorporated in late 2019 and claimed it served over 199,400 snacks, breakfasts, lunches and dinners in 2020-2021 under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. Photo by Deena Winter/Minnesota Reformer
At least four autism centers were reimbursed millions by the state of Minnesota through a fraud-riddled federal child nutrition program, while several others tried to get into the program, according to internal state emails obtained by the Reformer.
Federal prosecutors say over a quarter of a billion dollars was stolen from the program — designed to feed hungry children as schools and daycares shuttered during the pandemic — in what they’ve called the nation’s largest pandemic relief fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice has secured 23 convictions — including five in June after the first jury trial — while dozens more defendants await trial.
The investigation — informally dubbed Feeding Our Future after the Minnesota nonprofit at the center of the conspiracy — wound up unearthing connections to autism centers. The FBI is investigating possible Medicaid fraud in the state’s autism program, which has exploded in size and spending in recent years.
The number of autism service providers — who diagnose and treat people with autism spectrum disorder — increased 700% in the past five years, climbing from 41 providers in 2018 to 328 last year.
And the amount of money paid to providers during that time increased 3,000%, from $6 million to nearly $192 million, according to data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which administers Minnesota’s Medicaid health insurance program for low-income people and people with disabilities.
No one has yet been charged with defrauding the autism program, but some Feeding Our Future defendants also founded or had ties to autism centers, state records show.
Feeding Our Future defendant Bekam Addissu Merdassa of Inver Grove Heights owned an autism clinic called Epic Therapy in St. Paul, according to an FBI search warrant. Epic Therapy was paid over $106,000 for autism services in 2020 and over $613,000 in 2021, according to DHS records. It is no longer an active DHS provider.
Merdassa pleaded guilty to using his nonprofit Youth Inventors Lab as a shell company and submitting fake invoices for food while claiming to serve over 1.3 million meals over seven months, receiving over $3 million in federal funds. Prosecutors said Youth Inventors Lab never received any meals from S&S Catering to serve.
Separately, Epic Therapy of St. Paul also signed up for the federal child nutrition program, and was authorized to distribute free food to up to 5,500 children per day. Epic Therapy was reimbursed over $945,000 in 2021 for after-school snacks and dinners — under the sponsorship of a nonprofit called Partners in Nutrition — that it said it served from a brick storefront at 2430 University Ave. in St. Paul. Nobody could be reached at the center.
Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition were supposed to oversee food distribution sites run by others, but prosecutors say they enabled and participated in the fraud, although Partners in Nutrition officials have not been charged so far.
Another autism center called Smart Therapy Center, on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, was incorporated in late 2019 and claimed it served over 199,400 snacks, breakfasts, lunches and dinners in 2020-2021 under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. The autism center was reimbursed over $465,000, according to the state Department of Education.
Smart Therapy also claimed it gave away nearly 41,000 snacks, breakfasts, lunches and dinners in 2019 under the sponsorship of Partners in Nutrition, for which it was reimbursed over $85,000, according to MDE. The center is located inside an office building in a busy retail area on Nicollet Avenue, designated with a paper sign on the outside of the building and a sticky note on the suite inside. Center officials did not return a phone call seeking comment.
According to DHS records, it was paid $2.5 million for autism services last year, the seventh highest statewide among fee-for-service providers.
Twin Cities Autism Center, on Central Avenue in Columbia Heights, was paid over $152,000 for autism services in 2020, a number that grew to $1.7 million last year, according to DHS records.
The center also reported serving 93,000 snacks and suppers in 2021 under the sponsorship of Partners in Nutrition, for which it was reimbursed over $219,000. It also reported serving 300,500 breakfasts and suppers in 2021, for which it was reimbursed over $1 million, under the sponsorship of another nonprofit called Youth Leadership Academy, also known as Gar Gaar Family Services, a nonprofit created during the pandemic to feed the Somali community.
MDE banned Youth Leadership Academy from serving meals in December 2021, one month before the FBI raided homes and offices and its massive investigation went public. The summer prior, the nonprofit was reimbursed $28 million for over 7 million meals it claimed to serve over three months.
Gar Gaar Family Services has a connection to the attempted bribery of a juror in the first Feeding Our Future trial: The Seattle woman charged with delivering the bribe listed Gar Gaar as her employer in the past.
Ladan Mohamed Ali of Seattle is one of five people charged with conspiring to bribe a juror. Ali is charged with delivering $120,000 in cash to a juror’s home the night before the jury was set to begin deliberations. In bank records, Ali listed her employer as Gar Gaar Family Services.
Several other autism centers appeared to have attempted to join the program, but ultimately received no payments, according to MDE.