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Posted on 12/10/2025 8:03:50 PM PST by Morgana
(NewsNation) — Taxpayers in Maine have been bilked out of millions of dollars from the state’s Medicaid program, according to a whistleblower who in an interview with NewsNation likened the case to a burgeoning scandal in Minnesota, where people in the Somali community are accused of defrauding taxpayers of $1 billion meant for social services.
The whistleblower, Christopher Bernardini, describes himself as a former “billing guru” of Gateway Community Services — a health services contractor that he says defrauded Maine’s Medicaid program. Bernardini worked for Gateway from May 2018 until April 2025 as a program coordinator.
Bernardini alleges that Gateway oversaw a system in which false records were filed about client visits. He alleges an electronic monitoring system designed to track movements was manipulated to make it seem like field staff were visiting low income and disabled clients, when in reality they did not come within miles of the clients’ homes.
They then charged taxpayers for providing services that were never performed, according to Bernardini.
“I just couldn’t fathom it — I thought we were helping people; I thought this was all on the up-and-up,” Bernardini tells NewsNation in an exclusive interview. “I have a passion for helping people and I thought that we were doing the right thing this whole time.”
Bernardini says he grew disillusioned “when I saw how they were swindling people. When I had clients calling me to tell me their staff hadn’t shown up and I was told to bill those hours anyway. It just got worse and worse until I started really putting up a stink.”
Bernardini’s allegations have received considerable attention from conservative media in Maine, and have led Republicans in the state to call for probes into whether taxpayer dollars are being misused or wasted.
“I demanded a full investigation when I heard initial reporting about this welfare fraud scandal last May,” state Senator Matt Harrington (R) told NewsNation.
He criticized Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ administration over the issue.
“The Mills Administration has neglected obvious and credible reports of Somali-linked systemic fraud in the MaineCare system,” Harrington said. “This is an outrageous betrayal of Maine taxpayers.”
NewsNation has reached out to Mills’ office and the offices of MaineCare for comment.
The issue has also been raised in the gubernatorial contest to succeed Mills, who is running for the Democratic nomination to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
Ben Midgely, a former CEO and president of two personal fitness chains who is running as a Republican for governor of Maine, raised the state’s “Somali-linked welfare fraud scandal” in an op-ed for the conservative Maine Wire on Dec. 1.
Gateway worked with the state’s Medicaid program, known as MaineCare. According to MaineCare’s website, MaineCare “provides health care coverage for Maine’s children and adults who are elderly, disabled, or with low incomes.”
Another former Gateway employee, who asked to remain anonymous because they continue to work in Maine social services, also told NewsNation they saw records being manipulated.
“I saw many things happening that shouldn’t have been,” this second source said. “Timecards being manipulated to show services being provided they were not — and times also being manipulated.”
The company’s founder and CEO is Abdullahi Ali, a Somali-American who, while at the time serving as executive director for Gateway, last year ran for president (effectively governor) of Jubaland, a state in Somalia’s south that borders Kenya.
Ali did not respond to multiple requests from NewsNation for comment, but did post a statement on X late last week to respond to coverage of the story on conservative news outlets NewsMax and Maine Wire, the latter of which has covered the story extensively.
“I make no apologies for building a successful business in Maine, working hard to earn a living, earning my PhD, giving back to my Maine community, and running for office in Jubaland,” Ali wrote. “I am proud to contribute my hard-earned $ to support my people back home. America is a nation of laws—you cannot change facts by fabricating false stories. I am proud Somali-American.”
Ali was profiled last year in the Portland Press Herald, where he said he was inspired to launch Gateway in part to help immigrants in need of mental health treatment.
“In many cases they were reluctant to seek services because they didn’t feel safe,” he told the paper. “Because if they do share, parents think their children will be taken away or the government will know and they will be labeled as crazy.”
Nathan Davis, the executive director of Gateway Community Services, also did not respond to NewsNation’s request for an interview.
Maine had 2,730 residents who are Somali in 2023, according to World Population Review. In a sign of their growing political clout, there are three Somali Americans who serve in Maine’s state House.
The three Democratic lawmakers — Reps. Mana Abdi, who represents a Lewiston district, Deqa Dhalac, who represents South Portland, and Yusuf Yusuf, who represents Portland — on Thursday ripped President Trump for “hateful remarks” describing Somali Americans as “garbage.”
The three did not respond to a request for comment from NewsNation.
Trump in the last week has increasingly focused his attention on Somali immigrants amid the fraud scandal in Minnesota. He has also engaged in several verbal battles with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate, who has come under scrutiny over the controversy in his state.
In Maine, Ali’s company first caught the eye of state investigators years ago.
On March 22, 2022, Gateway received a notice of violation from the state’s MaineCare Services Program Integrity Unit. Based on a review of Gateway’s records and billing during 2017 and 2018, the unit estimated that MaineCare made overpayments totaling $904,000, although the amount was later revised to $776,000.
The state notice included a number of reasons for why it felt it had overpaid Gateway, including documentation for interpretative services not having matching start and stop times, and no signature dates.
Bernardini alleges that the questionable activity and billing practices grew exponentially during the COVID pandemic, when the federal government handed out close to $1 trillion as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
“Once the PPP loan stuff started going on, this one really ticked me off because, all of a sudden, I started seeing these staff come aboard. They’d be on board for two or three weeks,” Bernardini told NewsNation.
“No hours worked. I’d put in their training hours That’s it because again I was doing the time cards and I started seeing bonuses, $2,000 bonuses, going to these staff that had only been with us for two weeks. Never worked a shift with a client and yet the PPP loan comes, they’re giving $2,000 away like they’re lollipops at a doctor’s office and I’m like, ‘Where the hell’s my $2,000 bonus, I’ve been here six, seven years.’”
According to Maine Wire, which obtained documents via a Freedom of Access Act request, Gateway Community Services, LLC received $28.8 million in payments via MaineCare from 2019 through 2024, including $4.1 million last year, while Ali was running for office in Somalia.
Sara Gagné-Holmes, commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, did not respond to multiple request for comment from NewsNation for this story.
Bernardini in April 2024 wrote to the federal Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General seeking whistleblower protections.
“I work in the billing department for this agency and I have seen several things that are very questionable and could constitute fraud, waste, or even downright theft,” he wrote in an email to the DHS IG, which he shared with NewsNation.
“I could not (conscionably) continue doing this work wondering if what we are doing is fraudulent,” he wrote. “It does not feel right to continue along this path putting my name on all these documents while constantly wondering about the legality of these potential misdeeds by my organization.”
The DHS Inspector General responded in an email that his complaint “does not involve DHS programs or operations” and “as a result, DHS is unable to provide assistance with inquiries or complaints that fall outside DHS OIG’s jurisdiction.”
It said he could “report fraud through the state of Maine.”
Bernardini says he then submitted a tip to the Maine State auditor’s office in the spring of 2024. Bernardini says he was asked while at Gateway to provide information for the audit several months later.
Gateway Community Services terminated Bernardini’s contract in April of 2025, saying it was discontinuing the position.
Two months after he left Gateway, Bernardini received an email from the office of the Maine State Auditor, asking “have you communicated with any Federal agencies about this issue with Gateway Community Services LLC,” including the FBI or Homeland Security.
Bernardini has now left Maine for Florida, but he feels strongly that his allegations deserve more scrutiny from Maine office holders.
“I’ve been waiting patiently for this to blow up and I knew it would eventually,” Bernardini says. “I only wish I would have spoken up sooner.”
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OK, that’s two...
.
Somalis in Maine contributing to the progress of Western Civ.?
Call me when something is done
This means more “garbage” to haul away for Trump.
No love lost here.
Diversity is our strength
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