Minnesota man cleared of $7.2M Medicaid fraud is guilty again — prosecutors say the money bought Canada Goose, Coach and Nordstrom merch

In August 2025, Abdifatah Abdulkadir Yusuf, a Minnesota business owner, was found guilty on six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle in a seven-day trial. Yusuf was said to have scammed the Medicaid program out of over $7.2 million, while spending heavily on luxury items from brands like Canada Goose, Coach, and Nordstrom.

However, three months later, Hennepin County District Judge Sarah West overturned the jury’s guilty verdicts and acquitted Yusuf of the crimes. Now a three-judge panel on the Minnesota Court of Appeals has reversed West’s decision and restored the guilty verdicts, according to KSTP News.

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“I’m very pleased with the Court of Appeals decision today,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement, as reported by Bring Me The News. In the appellate court’s opinion, the jury’s initial interpretation of the facts was legally sound and should not have been discarded.

How Yusuf’s scheme raked in over $7.2 million

Yusuf and his wife, Lul Ahmed, established Promise Health Services LLC in 2018 to provide home and community-based care to Medicaid clients so that they can safely remain in their homes without having to relocate to institutional care facilities. Promise Health Services, however, is said to have billed Medicaid for “services it did not deliver,” according to a Court of Appeals document.

For example, one Promise worker only provided personal care to a client for about four to six hours each night, but the company billed Medicaid for up to 12 hours nightly. Another person, whose name was not fully revealed, was said to have been contacted by Promise, and she told them another service provider was already covering her. Promise still then went ahead to forge documents with her signature.

In all. prosecutors say Promise made over 40,000 fraudulent claims to the state’s Medical Assistance program between 2019 and 2022, KARE 11 reported –– and while state regulations demand that Medicaid providers operate out of a physical office, Promise did so from an address that turned out to be only a mailbox on Central Avenue in Minneapolis.

Yusuf left paper trails that led the authorities to him. More than $1 million is said to have flowed from Promise’s business account into his personal account, and he made cash withdrawals of over $387,000, according to KSTP News. He and his wife also spent over $80,000 at apparel stores, including Michael Kors, Canada Goose, Coach, Nordstrom and Nike, with over $56,000 at Nordstrom and more than $3,000 at Canada Goose alone, Fox 9 reported. They spent another $42,000 at luxury auto dealers and $22,000 on furniture, despite having no office to furnish.

“Stealing money meant for poor people’s health care and using it to buy luxury cars and designer clothes is as shameful and disgraceful as it gets,” Ellison said.

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Why Yusuf was initially acquitted of the crimes

West granted Yusuf’s motion for acquittal in November 2025, ruling that prosecutors had leaned too heavily on “circumstantial evidence,” according to a FOX News report. She wrote that “While there was a significant amount of investigation and work put into the case against Mr. Yusuf, there was not enough from which to infer Mr. Yusuf’s guilt.”

KARE 11 reported that West was of the opinion that it was “plausible that Yusuf didn’t know that his brother Mohamed Yusuf was committing the fraud.”

The Court of Appeals, however, didn’t agree with West. Its panel believes that Yusuf cannot feign ignorance, or blame his brother, as the trial’s factual record proves he was aware of Promise’s illegal operations. He identified himself as the company’s owner, manager, and authorized agent, signed checks to his brother Mohamed, and collected more than $1 million from a business with no office.

Yusuf’s case has been remanded back to the Hennepin County District Court for sentencing. Because the original jury found aggravating factors, the state is pursuing an upward departure from standard Minnesota sentencing guidelines, which may allow a judge to issue a longer prison sentence. Yusuf retains the right to request a review from the Minnesota Supreme Court.