Whistleblower Claims Somalians Committed Mass Medicaid Fraud In Maine

A Somali-owned company may have defrauded Maine in a manner similar to schemes that ripped off at least $1 billion from Minnesota, a whistleblower told NewsNation Monday.

Christopher Bernardini, a former “billing guru” at Gateway Community Services, said that the company falsified documents to obtain payment from Maine’s Medicaid program for services to low-income and disabled clients, NewsNation reported. Abdullahi Ali, the owner of the company, reportedly ran for office in Jubaland, a region of Somalia, and boasted about funding a militia there, according to The Maine Wire.

“I have a passion for helping people and I thought that we were doing the right thing this whole time,” Bernardini told NewsNation, later adding, “When I had clients calling me to tell me their staff hadn’t shown up and I was told to bill those hours anyway. It just got worse and worse until I started really putting up a stink.”

A Somali non-profit leader was billing MaineCare while running to be the Warlord of Jubaland.@BigSteve207 joined @CarlHigbie to explain how the Mills administration enabled the grift: pic.twitter.com/2iSkCUk8V3

— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) December 3, 2025

Bernardini told NewsNation that an electronic monitoring system intended to track field staff was manipulated to make it appear the clients were visited when staff actually failed to show up.

Gateway Community Services received $28.8 million in Medicaid funds from Maine, according to documents obtained by The Maine Wire via a Freedom of Access Act request. (Read more from “Whistleblower Claims Somalians Committed Mass Medicaid Fraud In Maine” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr