Tipsheet

Here's Why a Hennepin County Judge Overturned a $7.2M Medicaid Fraud Conviction

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  November 25, 2025 8:30 AM

We've told you quite a bit about Minnesota's ongoing fraud problems, the vast majority of them stemming from the large Somali population in and around Minneapolis. The state has paused Medicaid payments over fraud concerns (and that fraud has led to at least one death), and millions of dollars were laundered through the Feeding Our Future program and state housing programs, too. A lot of that money ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, the largest terrorist group in Somalia.

Despite all the evidence of fraud, a Minnesota judge has just overturned a jury's guilty verdict in one Medicare fraud case, paving the way for all the other fraud convictions to be overturned as well.

The jury heard that Yusuf and his wife were charged and the jury learned his "home health company" was operated out of a mailbox at an address where multiple other "home health companies" als operated. The state showed they spent tens of thousands of dollars on luxury items.

The jury quickly found the couple guilty. Now, a judge in Hennepin County, Sarah West, has overturned that verdict.

"It's reversing or overturning a jury's verdict," said defense attorney Joe Tamburino. Tamburino was not affiliated with Yusuf's case but looked at the judge's decision.

According to Tamburino, Judge West said the state's cased relied "heavily on circumstantial evidence" and that the state did not "exclude other reasonable, rational inferences."

"That, in fact, there could've been other reasonable theories other than guilt in this case. That's what it comes down to," Tamburino said.

Judge West herself said she was "troubled" by the fraud in this case. 

State Rep. Kristin Robbins, chair of the House Fraud Prevention and State Oversight Committee, said she was "stunned" by Judge West's ruling.

"We want to strengthen state law so that we can get prosecutions out of these cases," Robbins said. "Because clearly a jury thought he was guilty."

Jurors are stunned, too. "I'm shocked," said jury foreman Ben Walfoort. "I'm shocked based off of all of the evidence that was presented to us and the obvious guilt that we saw based off of said evidence. It was not a difficult decision whatsoever," Walfoort said. "The deliberation took probably four hours at most."

"Based off of the state's evidence that was presented, I was beyond a reasonable doubt," Walfoort said.

The Attorney General's office has filed an appeal. 

Judge West is a former public defender and a former transaction manager at Barclays.

Seems totally qualified.

If the (D)efendants are of the right (D)emographic group, jury verdicts are meaningless.

This sets a very dangerous precedent that threatens the rule of law not just in Minnesota, but elsewhere. If jury verdicts can be undone by a judge, we no longer have a rule of law. We have a rogue court system that can charge (or dismiss charges) regardless of the law.