U.S. Attorney’s Office of Minnesota has charged Nigerian-Americans, Christopher Adesoji Falade, 62, and his son Emmanuel Oluwademilade Falade, 32, with wire fraud in connection with a housing stabilization programme in Minnesota.
The District office noted that Christopher Falade and his son, Emmanuel Falade, worked together to run Faladcare Inc. as a provider in the HSS Program.
The Falades, along with their employees at Faladcare, were supposed to provide housing consulting, transitioning, and sustaining services to qualifying people in need.
It added that instead, over the course of years, the Falades and their conspirators created and submitted Program reimbursement claims that were inflated and fraudulent. By doing so, Faladcare received Program payments far exceeding the HSS services they had actually provided. In all, the Falades claimed to service about 100 different beneficiaries and for such services claimed to be entitled to over $2.2 million. The Falades diverted much of their fraud proceeds to their conspirators, including to their Faladcare employees.
The Scheme to Defraud the Housing Stabilization Services Program
As set forth in the charging documents, the defendants devised and carried out schemes to defraud federally funded health care benefits collected within Minnesota’s Housing Stability Services Program. The HSS Program dates back to July 2022, when Minnesota became the first state in the country to offer Medicaid coverage for Housing Stabilization Services. The Program was designed to help people with disabilities, including seniors and people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders, find and maintain housing. Rather than provide such help, the defendants obtained and misappropriated millions of dollars in program funds that were intended as reimbursements for services provided to those people.
The Program permitted reimbursements for four principal kinds of services: (1) housing consultation; (2) housing transition services; (3) housing sustaining services; and (4) moving expenses.
By design, the Program had low barriers to entry for new providers and for beneficiaries. The Program also had minimal requirements for reimbursement. The HSS Program’s low barriers to entry and minimal records requirements for reimbursement combined to make the Program susceptible to fraud.
Before the Program’s inaugural year, the Program was predicted to cost about $2.6 million annually. That proved to be inaccurate. In 2021 alone, the Program paid out more than $21 million in claims. That figure ballooned in the following years: $42 million in 2022, $74 million in 2023, $104 million in 2024. In just the first six months of 2025, the Program paid out another $61 million.
A federal investigation revealed that many Program providers defrauded the system. These providers acquired the names of Program-eligible beneficiaries from facilities like addiction treatment centers. They then used those individuals’ information to submit inflated and fake reimbursement claims. In this fashion, the providers acquired substantial pay-outs of taxpayer money to which they were not entitled. They used those ill-gotten gains for their own enrichment.
The noted that fraud in the Housing Stabilization Services program not only drains money from hardworking taxpayers, it also deprives vulnerable populations of resources to maintain safe housing,” said Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Sr. of FBI Minneapolis.
“Exploiting this program undermines the financial and physical security of the community amid a housing and addiction crisis. The FBI is relentless in working with our law enforcement partners to root out this fraud and prosecute those who enrich themselves at the expense of the community.”
“The charges filed today represent another big blow to organized program fraud in Minnesota,” said Adam Jobes, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Chicago Field Office.
“The Minnesota Housing Stabilization Service program was supposed to be a groundbreaking resource to provide stability, assistance, and dignity to seniors and individuals with disabilities. Instead, program funds were diverted to the pockets of greedy opportunists. IRS-CI is proud to partner with our federal and state agencies in investigations like these and will continue to provide our expertise and resources to fight back against those who have chosen to make their living exploiting some of our most vulnerable citizens. The public has the right to expect their hard-earned tax dollars are being used judiciously.”
“The fraud detailed in the criminal charges announced today reflects a calculated effort on the part of the defendants to significantly exploit a program designed to serve vulnerable populations and taxpayers at large” said Mario M. Pinto, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General.
“Our agency remains committed to working together with our federal and state law enforcement partners to identify and bring to justice those who defraud our nation’s healthcare programs.”
“Funding provided through Housing Stabilization Services is intended to help Minnesotans achieve a stable, housed future. When criminals selfishly defraud these programs they are not only committing a crime, but they are depriving others of services that can be life-changing, and defrauding all taxpaying Minnesotans,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the United States Postal Inspection Service.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel W. Bobier are prosecuting the case.
