Four Twin Cities men pleaded guilty to defrauding Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services program out of approximately $2.2 million and using artificial intelligence to fabricate records when auditors came calling — a case federal prosecutors say highlights a growing trend of fraudsters deploying AI tools to conceal healthcare fraud.
Moktar Hassan Aden, 31, Mustafa Dayib Ali, 29, Khalid Ahmed Dayib, 26, and Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, 27, each pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in separate hearings held between July 7 and July 23. They each face a maximum of 20 years in prison. Sentencing dates have not yet been set.
The men set up Brilliant Minds Services LLC in the Griggs-Midway Building in St. Paul — a building that has become notorious as a hub for fraudulent healthcare providers — and enrolled the company as a Medicaid provider under the state’s Housing Stabilization Services program, which was designed to help people with disabilities, seniors, and those with mental illness or substance use disorders find and maintain housing. The program has since been terminated by Minnesota’s Department of Human Services, which cited credible allegations of widespread fraud.
Rather than providing housing services, the defendants enrolled approximately 350 people in the program and submitted thousands of fraudulent or heavily inflated claims for services never rendered. Aden personally pocketed between $300,000 and $400,000. When investigators asked for supporting documentation, the defendants used ChatGPT to generate fake client notes and records in an attempt to conceal the scheme.
The fraud had already been exposed in part by investigative reporting from KARE 11, which uncovered that at least one Brilliant Minds client — a woman named Rachel Lien — had been billed more than $2,000 for services despite receiving nothing more than a Shark vacuum. Another individual, disabled and homeless Marine Corps veteran Jesse Kingbird, said his electronic signature had been forged on housing consultation records by a related company, Foundation First Services, operated by co-defendant Mohamed.
“These defendants corruptly exploited vulnerable people and a vulnerable program to enrich themselves,” said Colin McDonald, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “Taxpayer dollars designed to provide shelter and support for the homeless and needy instead went to the pockets of these men.”
The case was investigated by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and prosecuted as part of the ongoing Health Care Fraud Strike Force collaboration between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota and the Justice Department’s Fraud Division.