Minnesota appeals court revives $7.2M Medicaid fraud conviction a Dem-appointed judge threw out

A conviction in a $7.2 million Medicaid fraud case that had been thrown out by a Democrat-appointed judge last year has been revived by the Minnesota Court of Appeals.A three-judge panel on the Minnesota Court of Appeals ordered the six guilty verdicts reinstated against Abdifatah Abdulkadir Yusuf, whose healthcare firm was at the center of the fraud scandal.The panel rejected Hennepin County Judge Sarah West’s determination that Yusuf’s brother, Mohamed, may have been behind the fraud without his knowledge.Yusuf had been charged in June 2024 with swindling cash from Minnesota’s Medicare program with a business — Promise Health — run out of his home and was later found guilty by a jury in August of 2025.Promise Health had sent over 40,000 claims between 2019 and 2022 that were found to be fraudulent.

Witnesses during the trial recalled how the company charged the government for services that weren’t provided.There was also evidence that Yusuf pocketed over $1 million from the company, and authorities later unearthed over $400,000 in a spending spree at Canada Goose, Nordstrom, and more.

Yusuf had created the company in 2018.But despite the jury’s conclusion, West granted a motion to acquit Yusuf in November of last year, with local outlet KARE 11 reporting on how jurors were stunned by the move.That drew national backlash and came around the time that concerns about rampant welfare fraud in Minnesota reached a fever pitch.West had been appointed by former Minnesota Gov.

Mark Dayton in 2018, who preceded Tim Walz.But on Monday, the panel drew attention to the financial perks Yusuf racked up, including over $1 million from Promise Health accounts and how he signed checks to his brotherMohamed pocketed some $359,000, according to prosecutors, including from checks that Yusuf signed and marked as loans.Ultimately, the panel found that Yusuf’s claims of ignorance were not persuasive.Not long after the West overturned the guilty finding of Yusuf, YouTu...