First defendant in autism fraud scheme charged

The fight against fraud in Minnesota took on a new target, autism centers. It’s the latest in a series of taxpayer fraud cases in Minnesota.

A 28-year-old Minneapolis woman is now facing federal wire fraud charges tied to a $14 million autism fraud scheme. 

She’s also charged in the largest COVID-era fraud case in the state—the Feeding Our Future scheme. According to prosecutors, the woman allegedly pocketed nearly a half-million dollars by submitting fraudulent claims.

Investigators say the 28-year-old woman, who ran Smart Therapy LLC, billed for EIDBI services only to pocket taxpayer money, but never actually helped those children.

In a troubling twist, parents were paid to keep their children enrolled. On the high end, officials say kickbacks reached more than $1,000 per child.

“Often, parents threatened to leave Smart Therapy and take their children to other autism centers if they did not get paid higher kickbacks,” prosecutors said.

Charging documents say, the owner “approached parents, to recruit children into Smart Therapy” even if they didn’t have autism.

Last week, Acting U.S Attorney Joe Thompson announced charges against eight people accused of defrauding a Minnesota Housing program.

At that press conference he mentioned through investigation they found individuals exploited several systems at once. 

The woman charged in this autism scheme also allegedly stole nearly half of a million dollars as part of the “Feeding our Future” scheme.

“I think it’s fair to say that most of these healthcare fraud investigations, including autism, grew out of [the] Feeding Our Future investigation,” Thompson said. 

Minnesota’s Department of Human Services oversees the programs that are the focus of these federal fraud investigations.

Since June 1, DHS says they’ve taken steps to increase oversight by re-categorizing autism services as “high-risk” for fraud.

The change will strengthen oversight by:

• Mandating enhanced fingerprint background studies for owners
• Requiring screening visits before Medicaid enrollment and when enrollment is revalidated
• Allowing DHS to make unannounced site visits

DHS is also planning to temporarily halt new autism provider enrollments until licensing requirements are in place.

The Department of Human Services Office of Inspector General currently has 84 open cases on autism providers and 24 active payment withholds.

Thompson says this is just first in the ongoing investigation into fraud in the autism program.