A Maine whistleblower has come forward with explosive allegations that a Somali-owned behavioral health company defrauded the state’s Medicaid program on a mass scale, echoing the now-infamous Minnesota scandal that stole more than $1 billion in COVID-era welfare funds.

Speaking to NewsNation on Monday, Christopher Bernardini, a former billing specialist at Gateway Community Services, said the company systematically falsified documentation and manipulated electronic tracking systems to bill Medicaid for services that were never provided.

Gateway, which received $28.8 million in Medicaid funds, is owned by Abdullahi Ali, a Somali national who, according to The Maine Wire, previously ran for office in Somalia’s Jubaland region and bragged about funding a militia there.

The allegations, if verified, would link Maine to a broader pattern of large-scale welfare fraud involving Somali-run nonprofits and service providers—most prominently Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future scandal, which grew to more than $1 billion and is now under federal investigation for potential ties to the terrorist group al-Shabaab.

“Bill the hours anyway”

Bernardini told NewsNation that he originally believed Gateway was helping vulnerable communities. But he began to notice disturbing discrepancies in billing practices:

“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.”

A GPS-based monitoring system—intended to verify field visits—was allegedly manipulated to fabricate visits that never happened.

Bernardini described escalating pressure when he tried to flag the fraud:

“It got worse and worse until I started really putting up a stink.”

His allegations mirror whistleblower accounts from Minnesota, where state employees say officials under Gov. Tim Walz ignored warnings of rampant fraud and even retaliated against workers who raised alarms.

Political Fallout Erupts in Maine

News of the alleged Medicaid scheme has sent shockwaves through Maine’s political landscape.

Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles, have demanded immediate investigations into Gateway and Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services. Democrats responded by accusing Charles of racism for raising concerns about potential Somali-linked fraud.

The racial-political tension mirrors Minnesota, where President Trump recently called the state a “hub of money laundering” after federal indictments revealed that dozens of Somali individuals had stolen hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds through nonexistent child nutrition and medical programs.

ICE has since surged agents into Minnesota to target illegal Somali immigrants amid reports that some stolen welfare dollars may have funneled overseas to extremist groups.

Walz: “We attract criminals”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whose administration is still under intense scrutiny for its handling of the $1 billion fraud, acknowledged on NBC’s Meet the Press:

“Minnesota attracts criminals.”

Walz insisted Somali communities should not be “demonized,” though federal investigations continue into whether stolen welfare funds were siphoned to al-Shabaab.

Maine Officials Silent

Neither Gateway Community Services nor the Maine Department of Health and Human Services responded to inquiries from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Bernardini said he came forward because taxpayers—and vulnerable clients—deserve to know the truth:

“I thought we were doing the right thing… but it just kept getting worse.”

As federal authorities crack down on welfare fraud nationwide, Maine may be the latest state to discover that billions in loosely monitored social-service funding created a magnet for organized fraud networks, many operating across state lines.