Maine taxpayers have been swindled out of millions of dollars from the state's Medicaid program, according to a whistleblower who told NewsNation on Monday that the scandal is similar to one in Minnesota.
Some members of the Somali community in Minnesota are accused of defrauding taxpayers of $1 billion intended for social services.
The whistleblower, Christopher Bernardini, describes himself as a former "billing guru" of Gateway Community Services — a health services contractor that he says defrauded Medicaid.
Bernardini, who worked for Gateway from May 2018 until April 2025 as a program coordinator, alleged that the company oversaw a system in which false records were filed about client visits.
He alleged that an electronic monitoring system designed to track staff activity was manipulated to make it seem like field staff were visiting low income and disabled clients, when in fact they did not come within miles of the clients' homes.
They then charged taxpayers for services that were never provided, according to Bernardini.
"I just couldn't fathom it — I thought we were helping people; I thought this was all on the up-and-up," Bernardini told NewsNation. "I have a passion for helping people, and I thought that we were doing the right thing this whole time."
Bernardini said he became disillusioned when he saw how they "were swindling people. 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 until I started really putting up a stink."
"I demanded a full investigation when I heard initial reporting about this welfare fraud scandal last May," GOP state Sen. Matt Harrington told NewsNation.
He criticized Democrat Gov. Janet Mills' administration over the issue, saying that "the Mills administration has neglected obvious and credible reports of Somali-linked systemic fraud in the MaineCare system. This is an outrageous betrayal of Maine taxpayers."
Ben Midgley, a former CEO and president of two personal fitness chains who is running as a Republican for governor of Maine, raised the state's "Somali-linked welfare fraud scandal" in an op-ed for the conservative Maine Wire last week.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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