Overview
- Hennepin County Judge Sarah West granted Abdifatah Abdulkadir Yusuf’s motion for acquittal, setting aside six theft-by-swindle guilty verdicts returned by a jury in August.
- In a 55-page order, West wrote that the prosecution relied largely on circumstantial evidence and did not exclude reasonable alternative inferences of innocence, including that a brother ran the scheme without Yusuf’s knowledge.
- The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office said it is appealing the decision.
- Jurors who voted to convict told KARE 11 they were stunned by the ruling, with the foreman saying deliberations lasted about four hours.
- Prosecutors had alleged that Promise Health Services submitted false and inflated Medicaid claims and paid kickbacks, asserting more than $7.2 million in losses to the program.