WASHINGTON — Maine’s Medicaid program was taken for thousands and 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 Neighborhood Companies has drawn comparisons to the $1 billion social companies fraud scandal roiling Minnesota, which has led to prison prices towards dozens of members of that state’s Somali diaspora.
Christopher Bernardini, who labored as a program coordinator at Gateway between Could 2018 and April 2025, claimed to NewsNation that his former employer billed taxpayers for companies that weren’t offered and falsified data to help the fraud.
“I simply couldn’t fathom it — I assumed we have been serving to individuals; I assumed this was all on the up-and-up,” Bernardini, who has since moved to Florida, instructed the outlet.
“I’ve a ardour for serving to individuals, and I assumed that we have been doing the fitting factor this entire 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 individuals navigate care, perceive insurance coverage and security internet packages, and entry necessities like housing and meals.
“The crew additionally supplies workforce help, 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 workers to make it appear to be they have been visiting shoppers, whether or not that was the case or not.
“I had shoppers calling me to inform me their workers hadn’t proven up and I used to be instructed to invoice these hours [to MaineCare] anyway,” the whistleblower claimed. “It simply bought 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 based on 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.
“Unexpectedly, I began seeing these workers 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 workers that had solely been with us for 2 weeks.
“By no means labored a shift with a shopper 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 companies in Maine, backed up Bernardini’s accusations.
“I noticed many issues occurring that shouldn’t have been,” this particular person instructed the outlet. “Timecards being manipulated to indicate companies being offered that weren’t — and occasions additionally being manipulated.”
Gateway took in $28.8 million from MaineCare between 2019 and 2024, based on paperwork obtained 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 Common in April 2024 and was instructed the matter was outdoors the feds’ jurisdiction. He then submitted a tip to the Maine state auditor’s workplace and was requested to offer further data a number of months later.
This previous April, Gateway terminated Bernardini’s contract and two months later, he obtained an electronic mail from the Maine auditor’s workplace asking if he had “communicated with any Federal companies about this subject with Gateway Neighborhood Companies 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 laborious to earn a residing, incomes my PhD, giving again to my Maine group, and operating 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 help my individuals again dwelling. America is a nation of legal guidelines—you can not change details 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 reviews 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.”
