First defendant charged in autism-clinic fraud

Today, Asha Farhan Hassan, age 28, became the defendant first charged as part of a $14 million autism-clinic fraud. She is charged with one count of wire fraud.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson announced the charge in a press release, stating,

Today’s charges mark the first in the ongoing investigation into fraud in the EIDBI Autism Program. To be clear, this is not an isolated scheme. From Feeding Our Future to Housing Stabilization Services and now Autism Services, these massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money. Each case we bring exposes another strand of this network. The challenge is immense, but our work continues.

Please note Thompson’s use of the word “billions” with a “b” plural.

Hassan was charged via an information filing, which usually leads to an eventual guilty plea, and often implies a level of cooperation with investigators.

The U.S. Attorney indicates that Hassan’s share of the take was $465,000. As outlined in court filings, the case involves not just autism fraud, but also free-food fraud, the source of Hassan’s dollar figure. Thus, Hassan becomes the 76th person charged in the Feeding Our Future case. According to court records, her food distribution site was associated with the S&S Catering group of defendants.

The U.S. Attorney indicates that some of the money went toward purchasing real estate in Kenya.

Hassan and her Smart Therapy LLC were mentioned in news reports of FBI raids on local autism clinics back in December 2024. Even earlier, Smart Therapy was mentioned in this report from MN Reformer back in September 2024.

As for the autism fraud, the U.S. Attorney alleges, among other items. that Smart Therapy paid kickbacks to families enrolled in the program, based on reimbursements received from the state Dept. of Human Services (DHS). The U.S. Attorney adds,

Often, parents threatened to leave Smart Therapy and take their children to other autism centers if they did not get paid higher kickbacks.  Several larger families left Smart Therapy after being offered larger kickbacks by other autism centers. 

The charges also mention the involvement of Hassan’s (unnamed) business partners, one of whom had been suspended as a DHS provider as the former operator of an adult day care.

In addition, charges mention the involvement of transportation services, also billed to DHS. If true, the Smart Therapy case may represent the first recorded Superfecta of fraud.