State revokes licenses of two day-care centers linked to meal program fraud

State regulators have revoked the licenses of two adult day-care centers controlled by people indicted on charges of defrauding a federal meals program.

The moves come two months after the Star Tribune first raised questions about state support of 11 day-care centers whose 14 owners or managers were charged in connection with federal nutrition fraud.

Altogether, the Minnesota Department of Human Services has paid out at least $22 million in the past five years to those 11 day-care centers, according to a Star Tribune review of secretary of state filings and DHS payment records.

The revocations involve the Lakes Adult Day Center in Minneapolis, which was controlled by Liban Alishire, and Forever Friendship Adult Day Center in St. Paul, which was controlled by Mekfira and Abduljabar Hussein. The revocations were issued in late January, but DHS did not announce the actions until this week.

Since 2018, Lakes has received nearly $5 million in public funding from DHS, the most of the 11 centers identified by the Star Tribune. Forever Friendship received $68,145.

In January, Alishire pleaded guilty to pocketing more than $700,000 as part of a conspiracy in which he and others grossly overstated how many underprivileged children his Community Enhancement Services and Lake Street Kitchen sites served from late 2020 to early 2022 while under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future.

Federal prosecutors contend that Feeding Our Future orchestrated a $250 million scheme to steal money from federal programs designed to feed poor children. In Minnesota, the programs are overseen by the state Department of Education.

Abduljabar and Mekfira Hussein were indicted for falsely claiming to feed as many as 5,000 children a day through their nonprofit Shamsia Hopes, obtaining about $8 million in federal funds through Feeding Our Future. The federal charges allege most of the money was diverted for their personal use, including paying off the mortgage on their Shakopee home

Mekfira and Abduljabar Hussein and their attorneys did not return calls seeking comment, but the Husseins have previously denied any wrongdoing through their attorneys.

The revocations do not include Future Scholars Childcare, another day care operated by Abduljabar Hussein in Minneapolis.

In December, DHS officials acknowledged that Future Scholars continues to collect public funds aimed at helping low-income families afford child care services. Future Scholars has collected more than $1.3 million in subsidies from the Minnesota Department of Human Services since 2018.

DHS officials said they have not completed their investigation of all 50 people who have been charged in the meals fraud probe.

"We are still monitoring a few specific providers, doing a final search through our list of grants to these providers and conducting visits to those providers for whom we do not have sufficient evidence to take action," DHS said in a written response to questions from the Star Tribune.

After reviewing FBI search warrants and other documents made public in the meals probe, the department said it has barred an undisclosed number of conspirators from working for a DHS-funded organization for 15 years. The department declined to identify those day-care workers, citing state laws that prohibit providing information involving administrative investigations.

DHS officials said they can't stop payments or disqualify people from its programs based solely on allegations of fraud by other governmental agencies.

"In order to take action more rapidly in the future, we are proposing changes this [legislative] session that would allow us to respond more quickly when we are alerted to fraud found in programs administered by other state or federal agencies," DHS said in the statement.

The revocation order against Lakes Adult Day Center cited four prior enforcement actions involving 35 licensing violations.

In early 2022, records show, DHS informed Alishire that Lakes' license was being put on conditional status for two years after inspectors documented 13 violations. In the licensing order, DHS officials noted the "nature, chronicity and severity of these violations."

Among the center's most serious infractions — failing to provide required adult day-care services. Inspectors found participants lying on couches, watching television and "socializing amongst each other" with little interaction with staff for "significant periods of time," records show. Two participants were sitting in an enclosed fitness room with no supervision.

Adult day-care centers are supposed to offer daily activities to "functionally impaired adults" as a way to keep them out of nursing homes and other institutional settings, according to the order and program rules.

According to Alishire's plea agreement in the meals program, he submitted fake invoices and attendance rosters to prop up bogus claims that his federal child nutrition sites were serving meals to thousands of children daily.

Community Enhancement Services claimed to have served more than 70,000 meals from December 2020 to April 2021. Alishire meanwhile created a distribution company called Ace Distribution Services Inc., which falsely claimed to have served more than 800,000 meals to children from February to October 2021.

Alishire fraudulently claimed more than $2.4 million in child nutrition funds, and Feeding Our Future paid out more than $1.7 million to him and his co-conspirators. More than $700,000 of that total went to Alishire, he admitted in court.

Matt Forsgren, Alishire's attorney, said Alishire sold his ownership in Lakes prior to his indictment in September. Previously, Forsgren said all of Lakes' reimbursement claims were "appropriate."

Forsgren said Alishire regrets that Lakes "will be forced to shut its doors" after providing "vital care services to vulnerable seniors in Minneapolis' Somali and African-American communities."

In the case of Forever Friendship, state officials said two "controlling individuals" had been disqualified for the risks they posed to the program as well as a licensing visit that found five violations.