PORTLAND, MAINE — If you didn’t know any better, you would think Maine was the sickest state in the union.
Home health care LLCs, some with Minnesota area codes, fill entire office buildings throughout the city centers, suburbs, and exurbs of that once-sleepy New England state. They’re supposedly open from 9:00 to 5:00 every day, but no one is ever working.
‘The legislature needs to conduct a serious investigation of MaineCare’s provider system.’
What follows is the story of how Maine got robbed.
Somali refugees began flooding into Maine in 2001. Previously resettled elsewhere, the Somalis later gathered in Portland, then Lewiston, drawn by cheap housing. Catholic Charities Maine relocated the waves that followed, bringing as many as it could to Vacationland.
Catholic Charities was Maine’s primary federal refugee resettlement agency for nearly 50 years. It paid bus fare for hundreds of Angolan and Congolese migrants sent from San Antonio to Portland in 2023, the Maine Wire previously reported.
Maine, which boasts a robust General Assistance program offering rent, heating, food, utilities, and prescriptions to asylum-seekers for up to 24 months, has been a heavenly destination for the tired, poor, and huddled masses.
Soon enough, those masses would be rested, rich, and sprawled over numerous state-backed housing units.
Some New Mainers, as the state refers to them, never got off the government dole. In fact, they have built an entire way of life around spending other people’s money.
RELATED: Retiree radicalism: Behind the scenes with Maine's anti-ICE activists
Blaze News visited office buildings in Portland, Westbrook, and Lewiston, Maine, in September. We found dozens of home health care agencies, all of which spent the work day empty despite posted hours of operation. All companies were linked to Gmail addresses rather than any corporate email, and some even listed Minnesota mailing addresses and phone numbers.
Many of these numbers were out of service or went straight to voicemail. Only one, New Horizon Residential Care, picked up the phone. A thickly accented voice on the other end informed Blaze News that the company had shuttered operations and fled to New Hampshire after MaineCare fraud began to be exposed.
The full list of suspicious home health care LLCs could fill volumes, thanks to Jon Fetherston and Steve Robinson of the Maine Wire.
Some examples that Blaze News encountered in Maine are more glaring than others. Legit Home Health Care (now Legit Home Care LLC, according to state filings) registered with the federal government on March 19, 2018. Its provider record lists one official, a "director" named Adulahi Aden, and one address: 991 Forest Avenue, Suite 2A, Portland.
From 2019 to 2024, MaineCare paid Legit $7,116,267, according to state payment records previously obtained by the Maine Wire. That money is meant for aides who bathe, feed, and care for elderly and disabled Mainers in their own homes.
Legit billed $6.95 million across 8,652 claims from 2018 through 2024 for in-home personal care, according to federal Medicaid data. The claims were billed in 15-minute increments.
When Blaze News visited the office, no one was around to answer. The sign is still proudly and prominently displayed at the location.
Maine officials did once suspect something was off. In October 2022, MaineCare's Office of Program Integrity ordered Legit to repay $39,804.06. The home health care company had "failed to provide proper documentation for some of its services," according to state records reviewed by the Maine Wire.
Aden disputed the finding and sent in more paperwork. The state canceled the demand. Inspectors returned in July 2025 for a licensing review and found no deficiencies, the Maine Wire reported.
Normal nursing homes don't receive that kind of leniency. Federal rules require those facilities to undergo unannounced inspections and other taxing verifications. Home-care agencies like Legit aren't covered by those rules.
RELATED: Trump administration revokes visas for HISTORIC number of noncitizens
Legit Home Health Care had an important political connection. Halimo Mohamed, the wife of Democrat state Rep. Yusuf Yusuf, worked there.
Yusuf found the time to run his own agency as well. Care for Everyone, which received $1,212,852 from MaineCare between 2020 and 2024, operates out of the same address as Affinity Home Care. Neither Yusuf nor his agency has been accused of wrongdoing.
The overlaps can be confusing.
Yusuf's ethics filing places Care for Everyone at 49 Dartmouth Street, the same address as Affinity Home Care, from which the state is trying to recoup $445,262. Affinity is currently listed as administratively dissolved for a missed annual report.
The state's corporate registry puts Care for Everyone at 203 Anderson Street, which also houses a branch of Dahabshiil, a Somali money-transfer company. Its federal record lists a third address, on Bishop Street, with Yusuf as CEO. You almost need a flowchart to keep track of where your taxpayer money is going.
Yusuf did not respond to a request for comment.
RELATED: Social justice activist groups shut down after leader admits her years-long race hoax
Though Legit’s flashy name and vanishing audit make it a prime example of Maine’s seemingly endless fraud troubles, it is only one of many home health care companies gorging on state funds.
Holding Hands Home Health Care's bill was cut from $357,583 to $121,131. Adam Healthcare Services' (now Quality Care LLC) was cut from $647,834 to $25,849. Luna Home Care never paid its $262,120 recoupment and has billed MaineCare another $1.69 million since the notice was issued.
Community Home Health Care of South Portland received $47,986,855 from MaineCare between 2019 and 2025. The state suspended its payments months after the Maine Wire visited its office.
Bright Future Healthier You in Lewiston took in $15.6 million and is under federal investigation, according to the Maine Wire.
No public finding says how much of the money paid to Community or Bright Future was improper. Ocean Home Health Care on Bishop Street took $11.5 million. A 2020 state audit found $24,437 in overbilling, which it repaid.
Like Legit, Golden Home Care was also seemingly able to evade a clawback. Golden Home was ordered to repay $1,676,126 following a 2024 audit. That order was later canceled.
The list goes on and on and on.
Mostafa Alahmedi ran 5 Stars Home Health Care until auditors found $390,672 in overbilling. He repaid $13,961 and closed the business. He also worked at Ocean Home Health Care and claims he later worked at Golden Home Care and Community Home Health Care. Those four agencies billed MaineCare $66,487,379 from 2019 to 2025, though Alahmedi worked at each for only part of that time.
Gateway Community Services' office is registered next door to Legit, at 999 Forest Avenue. Gateway took $28.8 million from MaineCare from 2019 through 2024. Three state audits found about $1.7 million in overpayments. The state cut off its payments in December 2025.
There are two distinct, but related, Gateways. Gateway Community Services LLC is the for-profit enterprise, whereas Gateway Community Services Maine is a nonprofit organization.
The Maine DHHS affirmed "credible allegations of fraud" in May, according to the Maine Wire. Gateway appealed the payment suspension but missed its deadline to appeal the fraud finding itself.
Gateway founder Abdullahi Ali may now lose his Falmouth home, which he bought for $875,000 in 2022. Bangor Savings Bank sued to foreclose in July, months after the state placed a $44,082 lien on his property for unpaid income taxes. Gateway has denied the allegations.
Gateway's former attorney Pawel Binczyk said he no longer represents the company when reached for comment.
Catholic Charities Maine, the same church-backed charity that resettled migrants to the state, gave the not-for-profit Gateway Community Services Maine $77,672 in 2024 for “refugee health promotion and youth mentoring.” Catholic Charities is a MaineCare biller as well. The ostensibly Christian organization accepted $19.7 million from 2019 to 2024 and failed two state audits, which ordered it to repay thousands.
The companies tend to cluster together in specific locations.
At 203 Anderson Street in Portland, five home-care companies drew $13,774,554 from 2019 to 2024, sharing the building with a Dahabshiil branch. Maine Connect Care, one of those companies, later had its payments suspended. At 640 Brighton Avenue, Al-Shawk, Luna, and Hope Home Care received over $11.6 million.
In Lewiston, there are five home-care companies listed at a single warehouse grocery store on Park Street.
At 265 Lisbon Street, Lewiston's main street, five more share an address with the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine, which also runs offices at 124 Canal Street and 1220 Lisbon Street. Rajo Home Care, Ibsa Home Care, Ayda Home Care, Mayson Senior Care, and Mandi Home Care all registered with the federal government between June and September 2023. Rajo and Ibsa list the same phone number.
There are Minnesota connections as well. Mandi's phone number includes a Minneapolis area code, and Mayson's mailing address is in Saint Paul.
No one there reported ever seeing office workers or health care staff, and Blaze News found no offices.
When Blaze News and the Maine Wire entered the building on Canal Street in September, a notice from Lewiston District Court was taped to the front door. The company owed $63,013.87 in rent, utilities, and taxes as of June, according to landlord Veridis LLC's attorney. Veridis is suing to evict.
When reached for comment, the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine's Fatuma Hussein flatly stated that they had the money and requested that no further reporting be published on the matter.
That building also housed Gateway Community Services, which stopped receiving funding after a Maine Wire investigation. In August, the same landlord won a court order evicting Gateway from the building. It's quite the coincidence.
The Maine State Housing Authority also won a $110,000 default judgment against the center this year.
Independent audits of the center's federal grants for 2022 and 2023 each found "material weakness" in its internal controls and "material noncompliance."
RELATED: Are America's jails being run by foreigners?
The fraud being foisted on the Maine taxpayer hasn’t exactly been a secret. State officials have simply refused to take the large-scale actions necessary to root it out.
Democrat Gov. Janet Mills’ Department of Health and Human Services licenses these agencies, delivers the funds to them, and audits them.
Democrat Attorney General Aaron Frey’s Healthcare Crimes Unit is supposed to prosecute the cases the DHHS sends over. The unit declined four DHHS referrals in 2021 and secured one guilty plea out of 18 referrals from 2022 to 2025, the Maine Wire reported.
The DHHS typically sends three to five fraud referrals a year, the Portland Press Herald reported. The office is seeking a new chief as fraud allegations continue to pile up.
Frey’s office declined to comment on its referral record or on whether it has received referrals involving Gateway, Community Home Health Care, or Legit.
Republican lawmakers in Augusta say they have been stonewalled by Mills and her appointees.
“Lawmakers have called for comments from the Mills administration, and we have been met with silence,” Assistant Senate Republican Leader Matt Harrington told Blaze News. “Democrats are largely silent. Fraud should not be a partisan issue.”
“The legislature needs to conduct a serious investigation of MaineCare’s provider system,” Harrington said. “There are clearly problems in how providers are screened, monitored, and audited."
Harrington wants lawmakers to examine “whether providers are being appropriately vetted and whether DHHS has the resources and policies necessary to intervene quickly when red flags appear,” and he called for a review of the Healthcare Crimes Unit’s record.
“In fact, federal regulators have already raised concerns that make such a review absolutely critical,” Harrington said. “We should examine how many credible fraud allegations DHHS identifies, what happens to those fraud referrals, how long cases remain pending, and whether staffing or other deficiencies have prevented fraud from being adequately investigated.”
“Taxpayers deserve answers about how their money is being spent,” Harrington said.
The DHHS and Mills’ office did not respond to Blaze News' requests for comment.
“Many of my constituents are struggling to pay their electricity bills and buy medication, while fraudsters are getting rich,” Harrington said. “This is wrong.”
Community Home Health Care, Ocean Home Care, Bright Future Healthier You, Veridis LLC, and the Maine State Housing Authority did not respond to Blaze News' requests for comment.
This story was reported in collaboration with the Maine Wire’s Jon Fetherston.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Continue reading...
[H/T Blaze Media]
