WASHINGTON — Maine’s Medicaid program was taken for hundreds of thousands of {dollars} by a contractor whose founder and CEO sought political workplace in his native Somalia final yr, a whistleblower has claimed.
The controversy surrounding Portland-based Gateway Group Providers has drawn comparisons to the $1 billion social providers fraud scandal roiling Minnesota, which has led to felony prices in opposition to dozens of members of that state’s Somali diaspora.
Christopher Bernardini, who labored as a program coordinator at Gateway between Might 2018 and April 2025, claimed to NewsNation that his former employer billed taxpayers for providers that weren’t offered and falsified data to assist the fraud.
“I simply couldn’t fathom it — I believed we have been serving to folks; I believed this was all on the up-and-up,” Bernardini, who has since moved to Florida, informed the outlet.
“I’ve a ardour for serving to folks, and I believed that we have been doing the precise factor this complete time.”
Gateway was contracted with Maine’s Medicaid service, generally known as MaineCare, to help aged, disabled and low-income residents. On its web site, the group claims to supply packages that “assist folks navigate care, perceive insurance coverage and security web packages, and entry necessities like housing and meals.
“The group additionally offers workforce assist, serving to people establish employment alternatives, coaching, and certifications to construct expertise for stability and long-term wellbeing.”
The truth is, Bernardini claims, Gateway falsified a monitoring system meant to trace actions of subject employees to make it seem to be they have been visiting purchasers, whether or not that was the case or not.
“I had purchasers calling me to inform me their employees hadn’t proven up and I used to be informed to invoice these hours [to MaineCare] anyway,” the whistleblower claimed. “It simply received worse and worse till I began actually placing up a stink.”
State investigators had lengthy had their eye on Gateway, discovering that MaineCare overpaid the group by $776,000 over 2017 and 2018.
However in line with Bernardini, the fraud kicked into excessive gear through the COVID-19 pandemic, when the federal authorities doled out billions of {dollars} in forgiveable Paycheck Safety Program loans.
“Impulsively, I began seeing these employees come aboard,” Bernardini recounted to NewsNation. “They’d be on board for 2 or three weeks, no hours labored. I’d put of their coaching hours … and I began seeing bonuses, $2,000 bonuses, going to those employees that had solely been with us for 2 weeks.
“By no means labored a shift with a consumer and but the PPP mortgage comes, they’re giving $2,000 away like they’re lollipops at a physician’s workplace and I’m like, ‘The place the hell’s my $2,000 bonus? I’ve been right here six, seven years.’”
A second supply, a former Gateway worker who nonetheless works in social providers in Maine, backed up Bernardini’s accusations.
“I noticed many issues taking place that shouldn’t have been,” this individual informed the outlet. “Timecards being manipulated to indicate providers being offered that weren’t — and instances additionally being manipulated.”
Gateway took in $28.8 million from MaineCare between 2019 and 2024, in line with paperwork acquired by conservative outlet Maine Wire through a state Freedom of Entry Act request.
Bernardini mentioned he initially reported Gateway to the Division of Homeland Safety’s Workplace of Inspector Basic in April 2024 and was informed the matter was exterior the feds’ jurisdiction. He then submitted a tip to the Maine state auditor’s workplace and was requested to offer extra info a number of months later.
This previous April, Gateway terminated Bernardini’s contract and two months later, he acquired an electronic mail from the Maine auditor’s workplace asking if he had “communicated with any Federal businesses about this concern with Gateway Group Providers LLC.”
Gateway founder Abdullahi Ali was born in Somalia and settled in Maine following a stint in a Kenyan refugee camp. Final yr, NewsNation reported, he sought the presidency of Jubaland, a area of Somalia bordering Kenya.
“I make no apologies for constructing a profitable enterprise in Maine, working onerous to earn a dwelling, incomes my PhD, giving again to my Maine neighborhood, and working for workplace in Jubaland,” Ali wrote on X final week in response to reporting on Gateway. “I’m proud to contribute my hard-earned $ to assist my folks again house. America is a nation of legal guidelines—you can not change info by fabricating false tales. I’m proud Somali-American.”
The Put up reached out to a number of executives at Gateway and Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ workplace for remark concerning the accusations.
“The Mills Administration has uncared for apparent and credible studies of Somali-linked systemic fraud within the MaineCare system,” Maine GOP state Sen. Matt Harrington raged to the outlet. “That is an outrageous betrayal of Maine taxpayers.”
