Minnesota Medicaid Fraud Defendant Avoids Jail in Plea Deal to Aid Hunt for Fugitive Partner

A Minnesota Medicaid fraud defendant will avoid jail time under a plea deal that requires him to cooperate with authorities pursuing his fugitive co-defendant, whom a judge granted bond despite law enforcement warnings that he might flee the country.

Said Awil Ibrahim pleaded guilty on May 1 under a deal with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office. The agreement calls for five years of supervised probation and a stayed 150-day jail sentence in a nearly $11 million case that Ellison’s office has called the state's largest Medicaid fraud prosecution. Ibrahim must also help authorities track down his missing co-defendant, alleged mastermind Abdirashid Ismail Said.

Minnesota’s fraud scandals intensified in late 2025 as federal and state authorities expanded scrutiny into pandemic-era schemes involving suspects largely from the state’s Somali community.

Said failed to appear for a mandated court date in early April after Hennepin County District Court Judge Juan Hoyos granted him a $150,000 bond. The bond terms allowed Said to keep his passport, even though law enforcement officials warned the judge that he was a flight risk.

"Given the nature and severity of the charges, and SAID’s familial ties outside the jurisdiction of Minnesota, I believe there is a potential SAID may flee, hide, or otherwise prevent the execution of the warrant," a police detective wrote in the criminal complaint against Said. The complaint noted that Said has a wife and child in Kenya, where he is believed to have fled.

Ibrahim’s role in Said’s operation included defrauding Minnesota taxpayers of $2.2 million using false claims. He paid himself more than $500,000 through the scheme. Under his plea deal, Ibrahim acknowledged stealing from the state and agreed to return the $2.2 million through a payment plan to be set at sentencing. His jail sentence will be stayed if he complies with probation and the payment plan.

Investigators cited texts exchanged between Said and Ibrahim in 2022 as evidence of the fraud.

"We gonna party bro. Insha Allah," one text from Said to Ibrahim obtained by prosecutors reads.

"Next pay period bro I’ll bill 50k ... Im gonna over bill the hours ... And do a hit and run," Ibrahim responded.

Prosecutors claim Ibrahim over-reported time spent by staff at his care center on patient care to receive more state money than entitled. Authorities dismissed a racketeering charge and two additional theft charges against Ibrahim as part of the plea deal.

Said had been convicted of fraud in Minnesota in 2021. He received probation and community service instead of jail time.

Said testified at a 2023 hearing that cultural misunderstandings contributed to the fraud cases. He argued investigators did not grasp that people in Minneapolis’s Somali community often transfer funds without paper trails, local media reported at the time.

The Minnesota attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on Wednesday.