Two autism centers were raided by the FBI on Thursday in Minneapolis and St. Cloud, as part of an investigation into alleged Medicaid fraud totaling millions of dollars.

Here are some basics on the FBI’s alleged findings and the connections found with the Feeding Our Future scheme.:

The two centers raided by the FBI on Thursday were Smart Therapy Center, located at 1817 Nicollet Av. in Minneapolis, and Star Autism Center, at 3400 1st St. North in St Cloud.

The searches were part of an investigation into the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) health care program that is funded by the state and federal governments and serves people under 21 with autism spectrum disorder. The latest scheme was discovered in part through the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecution and FBI investigation into the Feeding Our Future scandal, the search warrant says.

The FBI’s search warrant accuses the two centers of making fraudulent Medicaid claims for services that they either never provided, or for services that were not covered by the EIDBI program.

Smart Therapy Center in multiple instances submitted bills to Medicaid for providers who didn’t actually work there, according to the warrant.

Smart Therapy Center received about $13.8 million in Medicaid reimbursements between 2020 and 2024 to provide EIDBI services, while Star Autism has received more than $6 million, according to the warrant.

The warrant does not specify how much of those amounts is fraud, but for Smart Therapy it alleges that “many of these claims appear to be fraudulent.”

Extending past Smart Therapy and Star Autism, Minnesota companies billed the state for roughly $400 million in both 2023 and 2024 for Minnesota Medical Assistance and related public health plans, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit to apply for the search warrants. That was up from $1.7 million in 2017.

Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, listed as Star Autism Center’s organizer in the LLC’s original state business filing, denied the fraudulent billing allegations.

“No. There was nothing like that, but I have nothing to say at the moment,” Yussuf said.

Asha Hassan, who is listed as Smart Therapy Center’s manager in state business filings, could not be reached for comment Thursday or Friday.

Although there was a federal probe, no charges have been filed. Thursday’s raids were carried out in an attempt to gather evidence that may support an indictment, but it could be months before there’s a decision on whether to charge. In the Feeding Our Future case, FBI agents raided businesses in January 2022; criminal charges followed eight months later.