A Minnesota woman has admitted to participating in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that targeted publicly funded autism services and child nutrition programs, federal prosecutors said.
Asha Farhan Hassan, 28, pleaded guilty this week to a federal wire fraud charge for her role in defrauding Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) program — a Medicaid-funded initiative designed to provide therapy services for children with autism — of more than **$14 million in reimbursement funds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota announced.
Prosecutors say Hassan operated a company called Smart Therapy LLC, which was registered as a provider of one-on-one autism therapy. According to court filings, Hassan and partners submitted millions of dollars in inflated and fraudulent claims to the Minnesota Department of Human Services and a managed care organization. Many of the claimed services were never provided, and some were billed without proper provider authorization. Portions of the fraudulent proceeds were allegedly shared among conspirators.
Hassan was also involved in the Feeding Our Future child nutrition fraud scheme, a separate and much larger case in which dozens of defendants were charged for submitting false claims to the Federal Child Nutrition Program during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of that fraud, prosecutors say Smart Therapy submitted fraudulent meal counts and invoices, resulting in approximately $465,000 in improper reimbursements.
Federal authorities also allege that parts of the money obtained through the Autism and Feeding Our Future fraud schemes were sent abroad, including investments in real estate in Kenya.
The case is part of a broader federal investigation into widespread fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid and social-services programs. Prosecutors describe the network of cases — from autism services to housing stabilization and child nutrition — as an “industrial-scale” fraud that has siphoned billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.
Hassan faces possible prison time under federal sentencing guidelines when she is sentenced later. Her plea marks a major development in one of the most high-profile fraud cases currently unfolding in the state.
