The Minnesota Court of Appeals reinstated a jury's guilty verdicts against Abdifatah Yusuf in a $7.2 million Medicaid case.

Monday's order puts the six jury verdicts back in place. It is not a sentence. The opinion KSTP posted says the racketeering count was already out before the jury got the case, so that count is not part of what was reinstated. KARE 11 and the Star Tribune do not use the same first name for the judge who wrote the opinion.

KSTP, KARE 11 and the Star Tribune reported Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, that the Minnesota Court of Appeals reinstated jury verdicts against Abdifatah Abdulkadir Yusuf in a Medicaid fraud case of more than $7.2 million. KARE 11 reported a three-judge panel ordered the case returned to Hennepin County for reinstatement of all six guilty verdicts for aiding and abetting theft by swindle, reversing Hennepin County Judge Sarah West. The Star Tribune reported West acquitted Yusuf after the jury's verdicts and before any sentence. KSTP reported the appeals court reversed that acquittal, that Yusuf will now be sentenced, and that a sentencing date was not immediately available. The opinion KSTP posted, No. A25-2003, says the court reversed and remanded for reinstatement of the jury's verdicts. It does not set a date.

The opinion says the state charged Yusuf in June 2024 with one count of racketeering and six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle over $35,000, with the theft counts covering ranges from October 2019 to August 2022. It says the district court granted a judgment of acquittal on the racketeering count before the case went to the jury, denied that motion on the six theft counts, and that Yusuf did not testify and the defense called no witnesses. The jury then found him guilty on all six theft counts and found aggravating sentencing factors, the opinion says. After those verdicts, the district court granted a new motion and entered a judgment of acquittal on the six counts. KSTP's story calls the August 2025 proceeding a court trial in one line and a jury finding in another. The opinion says it was a seven-day jury trial. KARE 11 also reported a seven-day jury trial in August 2025.

KSTP reported the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, in Attorney General Keith Ellison's office, charged Yusuf with defrauding Medicaid of more than $7.2 million through Promise Health Services LLC, a home-services agency with no physical office that operated out of a mailbox at a Minneapolis address. The Star Tribune reported investigators testified Promise fraudulently received more than $7.2 million, that $1 million went to Yusuf's bank account, and that he withdrew more than $387,000 in cash. KSTP reported court records accused Yusuf and his wife of spending more than $22,000 at furniture stores, more than $42,000 at luxury automotive dealers, and more than $80,000 at clothing stores including Coach, Canada Goose, Michael Kors, Third Degree Heat, Nike and Nordstrom. The opinion refers to his wife only by initials. It says they opened the company in 2018, that she transferred her share to him in 2019, and that the Central Avenue address he later registered, Suite 25, was a mailbox. KARE 11 reported he personally received more than $1 million, and that the retail evidence included Nordstrom, Canada Goose and Feldmann Imports.

The opinion says the district court concluded it was reasonable to infer that Yusuf's brother, Mohamed, carried out the fraud without Yusuf's knowledge or assistance. Judge Worke wrote, "This hypothesis of innocence might otherwise be reasonable had Yusuf operated Promise out of a physical location, disclosed Mohamed's role within Promise, or benefitted to a lesser degree than Mohamed. But that is not the case." The Star Tribune reported the opinion was written by Judge Renee Worke and considered with Judges Rachel Bond and Jeanne Cochran, and that the decision was unanimous. KARE 11 reported the decision was written by Judge Wilhelmina Worke. The opinion KSTP posted is signed Worke and says the panel was Bond, presiding, Worke, and Cochran. It does not print a first name. The opinion says Yusuf personally received over $1 million while Mohamed received about $359,000, that Yusuf signed checks to Mohamed including $33,000 and $40,000 marked as loans, and that Yusuf did not disclose Mohamed's role to the Department of Human Services. KSTP reported Ellison said Monday he was "very pleased with the Court of Appeals decision today" and that Yusuf "committed significant fraud against both taxpayers and the people who need the services he was supposed to provide." The Star Tribune reported that after the jury's verdicts last year he said, "Stealing money meant for poor people's health care and using it to buy luxury cars and designer clothes is as shameful and disgraceful as it gets." Those are two statements, a year apart.

Monday's order reinstates the six jury verdicts. It does not reinstate the racketeering count the district court took away before the jury got the case. KSTP's report that he will now be sentenced is not itself a sentence. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.