Maine Suspends Payments to Somali Charity after $1M in Fraud Uncovered by Audits

Maine officials have suspended state Medicaid payments to a Somali-run charity after more than $1 million in possible fraud was uncovered during multiple audits of the charity’s services.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) canceled MaineCare payments to Gateway Community Services after audits found the charity overbilled the state by $1,068,598 from March 2021 to December 2022. The money was supposed to cover the costs of “interpreter services” to Somali migrants, the Bangor Daily News reported.

This same organization has already been the subject of an investigation. Gateway allegedly overbilled more than $600,000 between 2015 and 2018 and remains under suspicion for other violations found in a third state audit completed in 2024.

The funding suspension follows red flags raised about the charity by U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, who warned the U.S. Treasury about welfare fraud committed by Gateway.

Gateway was founded in 2015 by Somali migrant Abdullahi Ali who faced scrutiny for launching his 2024 bid for president of Jubaland, an autonomous region in southern Somalia, at the same time his charity Gateway Services was bilking the state out of $1 million in poorly billed services.

However, Gateway was not solely staffed and managed by Somali migrants. The agency also has ties to a number of prominent Maine Democrats, including Democratic state Sen. Chloe Maxmin, and Democratic strategists Joanne D’Arcangelo and BJ McCollister, the latter of whom served on Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign for the White House and was chief of staff to Maine Democratic Senate President Troy Jackson.