ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Tuesday announced criminal charges against nine Medicaid providers who allegedly defrauded the state of $3 million.

The single largest instance of alleged fraud centers around a Duluth-based provider of psychotherapy services that the attorney general accuses of claiming more than $2.2 million through 27,400 false claim reports.

Peter Jason Meilahn, 50, faces 11 felony theft offenses and two identity theft charges in Ramsey County District Court. While he saw patients on occasion, he would continue billing after care stopped, according to the attorney general. Meikahn’s case was referred to the state by the health insurance company UCare.

In one case, Meilahn received $150,000 after claiming to provide two years of services for seven children, though none had a single appointment, Ellison said. In another case, he allegedly set up automatic payments for services and failed to show up for appointments.

“It’s just not tolerable that low-income folks who need health care for home care or personal services would have those services stolen from them, and taxpayers had the money they paid to fund those services stolen from them,” Ellison said while briefing reporters on the cases. “Our job in the Minnesota Attorney General’s office is to root out these Medicaid fraudsters and hold them accountable, no matter how much or how little they steal.”

In another case, Awo Mohamed, 36, of Roseville, is accused of billing Minnesota Medicaid for $675,000 in personal care services that either never occurred or weren’t eligible for reimbursement.

The Attorney General’s Office said it began investigating Mohamed because her care business, Always on Time, was tied to other fraud cases it was looking into. Mohamed faces six felony theft charges.

Three others — Matk Anthony Johnson of Brooklyn Park, Qalid Hussein Hassan of Bloomington, and Angela Ruth Johnson of Minneapolis — are also charged in connection with the Always on Time scheme.

Other cases involved overbilling or misrepresentation of personal care assistant services.

Kiddjazzminne Cherrall Freeman of Minneapolis is accused of stealing tens of thousands while exploiting a vulnerable adult. Michelle Tyrese Lucas Reed is charged in Hennepin County with felony theft and is accused of stealing $42,000 by overbilling and exaggerating working hours as a personal care assistant — sometimes claiming to work up to 20 hours a day.

Can money be recovered?

Ellison said there is “hope” the state can recover the stolen funds in the new Medicaid fraud cases. But Nick Wanka, the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Director, said the defendants may have already spent a good amount of the money.

“There are some cases here where we’ve been able to locate a number of bank accounts from people that we believe may still have money in them,” he told reporters.

Ellison said his office has obtained more than 350 fraud convictions since he took office in 2019 and secured around $90 million in court-ordered restitution.

As of July, the state had only recovered about $3 million, according to a report from KSTP-TV.

State, federal cases

High-profile fraud cases involving hundreds of millions of federal dollars stolen from state agencies have drawn national attention to Minnesota over the last year.

Since September last year, federal prosecutors have charged 30 people in cases totaling another $125 million in alleged theft in federal Medicaid dollars from state programs.

Minnesota fraud has been described as “industrial scale” by former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who speculated total losses in Medicaid programs alone could top $9 billion since 2018 — a figure Gov. Tim Walz and state officials have disputed. So far, prosecutors have proven hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud.

Ellison said a new law expanding Medicaid fraud investigation capabilities has given the state more power to pursue fraud cases on its own. It passed the Minnesota Legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2026 at the attorney general’s urging. Lawmakers also approved funding for more staffing at the Medicaid fraud unit.

Tuesday’s announcement is the most recent round of state-led fraud prosecutions. In June, Ellison announced charges against seven Medicaid providers who allegedly stole a total of $700,000 from the state — including a former Roseville schools employee who allegedly billed for personal care services for two years while living in Kansas.

Other cases

In January, Ellison’s office charged a Minneapolis man with attempting to defraud Minnesota Medicaid programs of more than $3 million.

Ellison’s office has pursued criminal prosecution against Medicaid fraudsters but has used civil action in the pandemic-era meal program fraud cases.

Last week, Partners in Nutrition agreed to pay the state $18.5 million and dissolve itself as part of a civil settlement entered Thursday with Attorney General Keith Ellison.

The alleged fraud was similar to the $250 million Feeding Our Future scheme.

Ellison said all criminal prosecutions in that case have been federal because the state does not have criminal jurisdiction in that program area. Meal aid came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was distributed by the Minnesota Department of Education.

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