MINNEAPOLIS — Abdirashid Said is the original Personal Care Assistant company fraudster who stole taxpayer money while claiming to operate out of a mailbox at an office on Central Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis.
After he was convicted in 2021 and ordered to have nothing to do with companies that receive Medicaid money, other PCA companies took his place at the Central Avenue office.
And Said started receiving checks from them.
"Were those checks for employment for you, Mr. Said?" former state prosecutor Steve Forrest asked at a probation violation hearing.
"No, they were for loans," Said said.
Said claimed the checks were loans -- including to pay back his restitution in his first fraud case.
Investigators didn't buy it. And they charged Said -- along with the owners of the other PCA companies -- of racketeering, a conspiracy to steal $11 million of taxpayer money, and uncovering text messages between them that say things like "I'm gonna overbill the hours."