Taxpayers in Maine have been bilked out of millions of dollars from the state’s Medicaid program, according to a whistleblower who in an interview with NewsNation likened the case to a burgeoning scandal in Minnesota, where people in the Somali community are accused of defrauding taxpayers of $1 billion meant 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 Maine’s Medicaid program. Bernardini worked for Gateway from May 2018 until April 2025 as a program coordinator.

Bernardini alleges that Gateway oversaw a system in which false records were filed about client visits. He alleges an electronic monitoring system designed to track movements was manipulated to make it seem like field staff were visiting low income and disabled clients, when in reality they did not come within miles of the clients’ homes.

They then charged taxpayers for providing services that were never performed, 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 tells NewsNation in an exclusive interview. “I have a passion for helping people and I thought that we were doing the right thing this whole time.”

Bernardini says he grew disillusioned “when I 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.”

Bernardini’s allegations have received considerable attention from conservative media in Maine, and have led Republicans in the state to call for probes into whether taxpayer dollars are being misused or wasted.

“I demanded a full investigation when I heard initial reporting about this welfare fraud scandal last May,” state Senator Matt Harrington (R) told NewsNation.

He criticized Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ administration over the issue.

“The Mills Administration has neglected obvious and credible reports of Somali-linked systemic fraud in the MaineCare system,” Harrington said. “This is an outrageous betrayal of Maine taxpayers.”

NewsNation has reached out to Mills’ office and the offices of MaineCare for comment.

The issue has also been raised in the gubernatorial contest to succeed Mills, who is running for the Democratic nomination to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins.

Ben Midgely, 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 on Dec. 1.

Gateway worked with the state’s Medicaid program, known as MaineCare. According to MaineCare’s website, MaineCare “provides health care coverage for Maine’s children and adults who are elderly, disabled, or with low incomes.”

Another former Gateway employee, who asked to remain anonymous because they continue to work in Maine social services, also told NewsNation they saw records being manipulated.

“I saw many things happening that shouldn’t have been,” this second source said. “Timecards being manipulated to show services being provided they were not — and times also being manipulated.”

The company’s founder and CEO is Abdullahi Ali, a Somali-American who, while at the time serving as executive director for Gateway, last year ran for president (effectively governor) of Jubaland, a state in Somalia’s south that borders Kenya.

Ali did not respond to multiple requests from NewsNation for comment, but did post a statement on X late last week to respond to coverage of the story on conservative news outlets NewsMax and Maine Wire, the latter of which has covered the story extensively.

{snip} “I am proud to contribute my hard-earned $ to support my people back home. America is a nation of laws—you cannot change facts by fabricating false stories. I am proud Somali-American.”

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Maine had 2,730 residents who are Somali in 2023, according to World Population Review. In a sign of their growing political clout, there are three Somali Americans who serve in Maine’s state House.

The three Democratic lawmakers — Reps. Mana Abdi, who represents a Lewiston district, Deqa Dhalac, who represents South Portland, and Yusuf Yusuf, who represents Portland — on Thursday ripped President Trump for “hateful remarks” describing Somali Americans as “garbage.”

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