$14 Million Autism Fraud Scheme Unveiled: Woman Charged in Nexus to 'Feeding Our Future' Scandal

$14 Million Autism Fraud Scheme Unveiled: Woman Charged in Nexus to 'Feeding Our Future' Scandal

Coon Rapids, MN — Federal prosecutors have filed the first criminal charge in a sweeping investigation into fraud within Minnesota’s state-funded autism treatment program, exposing a direct connection to the state’s notorious Feeding Our Future scandal.

Asha Farhan Hassan, 28, of Minneapolis, has been charged by federal information with one count of wire fraud. Prosecutors allege that Hassan, through her company Smart Therapy LLC, orchestrated a scheme that siphoned off more than $14 million meant for vulnerable children receiving care under Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) program.

How the Scheme Worked

According to court documents, between November 2019 and December 2024, Hassan and her associates allegedly manipulated the EIDBI program by:

• Falsifying Services: Billing Medicaid for the maximum number of treatment hours, even when children received little or no therapy.
• Cash Kickbacks: Paying parents—reportedly ranging from $300 to $1,500 per child per month—to enroll their children in Smart Therapy. Investigators noted that many families were recruited from the Somali community.
• Unqualified Staff: Employing 18- and 19-year-old relatives as “behavioral technicians,” despite lacking the training or certification required to treat children with autism.
• Falsified Diagnoses: Working with a Qualified Supervising Professional to secure autism diagnoses and treatment plans for nearly every child recruited. As one filing bluntly stated: “There was no child that Smart Therapy was not able to get qualified for autism services.”

Feeding Our Future Connection

The case also reveals that Hassan’s company was tied directly to the Feeding Our Future conspiracy, one of the nation’s largest COVID-era fraud cases. Prosecutors say that from 2020 to 2021, Smart Therapy claimed to serve as many as 1,200 meals per day, seven days a week, defrauding the Federal Child Nutrition Program of an additional $465,000.

This brings Hassan into the orbit of the larger Feeding Our Future case, where more than 75 defendants have been charged with collectively stealing over a quarter of a billion dollars in federal child nutrition funds. Hassan now becomes both the first person charged in the autism investigation and the 76th defendant in the Feeding Our Future probe.

Use of Stolen Funds

Prosecutors allege Hassan split the fraud proceeds with her partners, funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars overseas, and used part of the money to purchase real estate in Kenya.

What’s Next

Hassan has been charged via criminal information, a charging document that typically signals a defendant’s intent to plead guilty. Her attorney has confirmed that she intends to do so and cooperate with federal investigators.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said the case underscores the breadth of pandemic-era fraud:

“From Feeding Our Future to Housing Stabilization Services and now Autism Services, these massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office emphasized that this is only the beginning of charges in the EIDBI fraud investigation, which they say is ongoing and expected to widen in scope.

MinneapoliMedia