Philly Men Flew To Minnesota To Cash In On Fraud Opportunities, Feds Say

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Two men from Philadelphia are accused of flying to Minnesota to exploit a little-known Medicaid housing program that federal prosecutors say became a multimillion-dollar fraud opportunity because of minimal oversight.

Anthony Waddell Jefferson, 37, and Lester Brown, 53, have been charged with wire fraud for their alleged roles in a scheme targeting Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program.

Prosecutors said the pair decided to cash in after learning Minnesota’s program was "a good opportunity to make money," despite having no ties to the state.

According to federal charging documents, Jefferson and Brown lived in Pennsylvania and had no Minnesota connections beyond their participation in the HSS program. They registered Minnesota-based LLCs, enrolled as housing service providers, and repeatedly flew to Minneapolis to recruit beneficiaries.

The two allegedly visited shelters and Section 8 housing facilities, marketing themselves as “The Housing Guys,” while billing Medicaid for housing consulting, transitioning, and sustaining services that prosecutors say were largely fabricated.

At Jefferson’s direction, employees allegedly created fake client notes documenting services that were never provided. Some of the paperwork included signatures from invented employees.

Brown, prosecutors say, generally kept no client notes at all until insurers requested documentation, at which point he allegedly created false records to support the claims.

Federal authorities say Jefferson and Brown submitted roughly $3.5 million in Medicaid claims tied to about 230 beneficiaries.

The case is part of a broader federal crackdown on fraud tied to Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services program, which launched in 2020 with low barriers to entry. The program’s costs quickly outpaced expectations, ballooning from $21 million in payouts in 2021 to more than $100 million in 2024.

Prosecutors say the HSS program’s rapid growth and limited documentation requirements made it especially vulnerable to abuse, attracting out-of-state operators with no real presence in Minnesota.

Jefferson and Brown are among several defendants charged this week as part of a sweeping federal investigation into fraud across Minnesota Medicaid programs, with authorities saying additional cases are ongoing.

The charges were announced alongside new cases involving autism services fraud, additional housing schemes, and a newly unsealed investigation into another Minnesota Medicaid program.