A NewsNation investigation found clusters of home health care agencies operating from the same quiet office buildings in Maine. They are like 75 Bishop Street in Portland, where 10 of 20 businesses offer MaineCare-funded services.
One tenant, Five Stars Home Health Care, received over $1 million in payments from 2022 to 2024, but dissolved after auditors flagged a 65% billing error rate and ordered $391,000 repaid, with no recovery recorded.
Officials note similar patterns flagged as red flags in Minnesota, while Gov. Janet Mills supports further probes to protect taxpayer funds amid ongoing audits.
Republican lawmakers in Maine blamed state Democrats, including the governor, for ignoring a health services contractor that defrauded the state’s Medicaid program of millions of dollars. Now, they are calling for full accountability into an issue they fear is just the tip of the iceberg of widespread fraud.
In an exclusive interview with NewsNation earlier this month, whistleblower Christopher Bernardini alleged that Gateway Community Services filed false claims for visits to disabled and low-income clients, though the services were never performed.
In a news conference on Tuesday, Republicans maintained that the fraud found inside Gateway only scratches the surface of what is happening across the state. Republican State Sen. Matt Harrington said that the fraud has “disturbing similarities” to to ongoing fraud investigations in Minnesota, where people in the Somali community are accused of defrauding taxpayers of social services funds.
The Maine Wire discovers a “Home Health Care” agency received over $1 million from taxpayer funded MaineCare
Even after they were caught over billing, Maine Democrats kept sending them an additional $500,000. Even in the middle of an audit
No criminal investigation, no charges pic.twitter.com/k5eD15Ddhk
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) January 21, 2026
🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Journalist finds $2M “home health” center in Maine located next to a SOMALI MONEY WIRING SERVICE
They don’t even freaking hide it.
In one building, TEN businesses are home health. Nobody is ever there.
They are funded by our tax dollars. IT’S FRAUD.
“That’s a… pic.twitter.com/w5TPHk9C3x
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 21, 2026
After receiving the national spotlight, this local Lewiston Maine here Somali owned shop changed their WIRE TRANSFER SERVICE signage.
This says they know they were defrauding tax dollars by wiring monies “back home”.
Took us a while, but we are all “Learing”.
ICE is welcomed! pic.twitter.com/xTgms21XZy
— Moni 💕 (@MoniFunGirl) January 17, 2026
Democrats are very upset that these people, four of 50 criminals, were arrested:
Here are some of the non-citizens ICE has detained in Maine: pic.twitter.com/QCCLpCy926
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) January 22, 2026
