FBI agents on Wednesday raided five Twin Cities businesses and two homes as part of an investigation into Medicaid housing assistance fraud.
In 2020, Minnesota became the first state to use Medicaid dollars to help people with disabilities find and keep housing. Legislators initially expected the Housing Stabilization Services program to cost the Medical Assistance program, Minnesota’s version of Medicaid, $2.6 million annually. But investigators note that in its first year, it paid out $21 million, and by 2024, that figure reached $104 million.
In a newly unsealed search warrant, FBI Special Agent Kurt Beulke writes that there’s been an “explosion in fly-by-night providers” that have exploited the program amid a housing and addiction crisis while providing no services. Details of the investigation are outlined in the warrant; federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges in the case…