Abdirashid Ismail Said Fled U.S. Before $11M Medicaid Fraud Trial

The largest Medicaid fraud case in Minnesota history has hit a humiliating dead end.

Abdirashid Ismail Said, the lead defendant in a staggering $11 million racketeering and PCA (Personal Care Assistance) fraud scheme, has officially fled the United States just days before his jury trial was set to begin on April 13, 2026.

Despite a prior conviction for Medicaid fraud and a history of probation violations, Hennepin County Judge Juan Hoyos allowed Said to go free on a $150,000 unconditional bond.

Critically, the court did not require Said to surrender his passport.

Taking advantage of the lapse, the 50-year-old Fridley resident vanished earlier this week, leaving the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office with a "dormant" case and an empty defendant's chair.

Said’s history with the law is as long as it is profitable.

In 2021, he pled guilty to felony fraud but saw his charges reduced to a gross misdemeanor through a "downward departure", receiving only community service and probation.

During his time as a Minneapolis resident, he was also a politically active donor, contributing the maximum $1,000 to Ilhan Omar’s first state House campaign in 2015.

While an insurance company is now on the hook for the bond money, the $1.9 million Said is personally accused of pocketing from the program remains missing.

Judge Hoyos has since issued a warrant and reset bail at $2 million, but with Said likely halfway across the globe, critics are pointing to the "soft on crime" policies of the Walz administration as the reason a high-flight-risk fraudster was given a one-way ticket out of justice.