Judge under fire for tossing $7M Medicaid fraud conviction tied to Minnesota couple’s ‘lavish lifestyle’

A Minnesota judge is under scrutiny for overturning a $7.2 million fraud conviction of a couple who were found guilty of misappropriating Medicaid funds to support their “lavish lifestyle” of fancy cars and designer duds.

Abdifatah Yusuf, 44, was charged in June 2024 and found guilty in August 2025 after he and his wife were accused of stealing millions from Minnesota’s Medicaid program while running a healthcare business out of their home, according to a release from the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.

Yusuf was found guilty of six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle by a jury, but Judge Sarah West overturned the conviction in mid-November, KARE reported.

West was appointed by Gov. Tim Walz’s predecessor, Mark Dayton, in July 2018, according to an archived release by the governor.

The judge wrote that her choice to overturn the case “relied heavily on circumstantial evidence” and asserted that the state didn’t rule out other possible “reasonable interferences,” KARE reported.

West did highlight that she was still “troubled by the manner in which fraud was able to be perpetuated” at the couple’s defunct practice, despite tossing out the conviction.

Yusuf and his 41-year-old wife Lul Ahmed operated their business for “years out of a mailbox,” but the husband was using Medicaid money behind-the-scenes to fund their “lavish lifestyle,” the attorney general’s office said.

The couple frequently went on shopping sprees at “luxury clothing stores,” ranging from Coach to Nike.

Yusuf funneled more than $1 million from their business to his personal account and withdrew over $387,000 in cash, according to the release.

Many Minnesotans, including members of the case’s jury, were appalled by West’s decision to overturn the convictions.

“It was not a difficult decision whatsoever. The deliberation took probably four hours at most. Based off of the state’s evidence that was presented, it was beyond a reasonable doubt,” former juryman Ben Walfoort told the outlet.

Yusuf’s attorney told the outlet that West’s move “affirms” that Yusuf “was wrongfully accused.”

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, helmed by Democrat Keith Ellison, filed an appeal contesting West’s ruling.

“Stealing money meant for poor people’s healthcare and using it to buy luxury cars and designer clothes is as shameful and disgraceful as it gets. Minnesotans believe in helping our neighbors, but we have no patience for fraudsters like Abdifatah Yusuf who abuse that generosity to enrich themselves,” Ellison said after Yusuf was convicted in August.

Minnesota is currently grappling with another larger fraud investigation in the wake of the Feeding Our Future scheme, which saw hundreds of millions of dollars being embezzled from COVID-19 funds.

The Manhattan Institute published a report in late November alleging that Al-Shabaab, a Somali terror group, was receiving millions of dollars that were related to the Feeding Our Future scheme.

On Nov. 21, President Trump terminated deportation protections for Somalis in Minnesota and claimed that related gangs were “terrorizing the people of that great State” while “BILLIONS of Dollars” were going missing.

Walz is under fire for the scandal, with even his state’s own Department of Human Services claiming he is responsible for the “massive fraud.”