As federal authorities freeze childcare funding in Minnesota amid convictions tied to more than $250 million in alleged fraud, similar concerns, including Somali fraud in Ohio, are emerging in Columbus—and closer to home. Public records, whistleblower reports, and demands from state lawmakers point to patterns of questionable billing in refugee, childcare, and home healthcare programs serving Ohio’s large Somali community.
Ohio has the second-largest Somali population in the United States, and state spending on refugee services has risen sharply in recent years. Much of that money flows through nonprofits and related entities that provide childcare reimbursements, nutrition programs, and Medicaid-funded home health services—exactly the areas where Minnesota saw widespread abuse.
At the center of the Ohio scrutiny is a Columbus nonprofit whose revenue has surged on federal grants, alongside a revoked auditor with a Cincinnati-based healthcare firm. Perhaps most strikingly, Somalia’s ambassador to the United Nations was once listed as the head of a Cincinnati home healthcare company that billed Medicaid—raising ethical questions about conflicts of interest, though no wrongdoing has been proven.
