The ‘Flanagan-Linked’ Autism Center, Checked: A Friendship, a Termination Notice, No Public Fraud Finding

MINNEAPOLIS – In the three days after September 18, a Minneapolis autism center run by a longtime friend of Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan went from a Minnesota news site’s exclusive to national headlines about a fraud probe reaching the Senate nominee’s “inner circle.” The public record behind those headlines is smaller than the headlines. The Minnesota Department of Human Services said in September that it had terminated Milestone Development Center in Minneapolis and Spectrum Therapy Center in Eagan from Medicaid months earlier under its revalidation sweep, that both had appealed, and that it has open investigations into both that it cannot, by law, discuss. One former employee described two months at Milestone in 2023, and the center’s chief executive denied it. None of it reports a fraud finding or a criminal charge, and none of it establishes any role for Flanagan.

According to state business records, Milestone’s chief executive is Nimco Ahmed, a longtime activist in the Minnesota DFL (the state’s Democratic Party). In a video posted in December 2025, Flanagan stood beside Ahmed at a Minneapolis Somali market and said, “We’ve been friends for almost 25 years.” That sentence is the connection. Both centers ran on Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention, or EIDBI, the Minnesota Medicaid benefit that pays for ABA and three other treatment approaches for people under 21 with autism or a related condition, and both were terminated under Minnesota Revalidate 2026, the state’s compressed re-screening of high-risk Medicaid service types, according to DHS, with appeals pending; their current enrollment and billing status is not established by the published statements. For anyone who runs an EIDBI agency, the gap between that record and those headlines is the story: the same three oversight tracks, revalidation, provisional licensing, and investigation, now apply to every agency in the program, the first two to all of them at once and the third to any of them at any time, and a termination notice, an open file, and one former employee’s disputed allegations became a “fraud” headline with no finding behind it.

What DHS Actually Said

The department’s statements to Alpha News and Fox News are the official account the reporting rests on. They say DHS has “open investigations into both Spectrum Therapy Center and Milestone Development Centers,” that it terminated both from Medicaid “several months ago” as part of Revalidate 2026, that both appealed, and that neither has been issued the provisional license the state is phasing in for EIDBI agencies. As published, the statements do not contain the word fraud. They do not say why either provider was terminated, what the investigations concern or when they opened, whether the former employee’s account is part of either inquiry, or whether either center can bill Medicaid today. Ahmed had not been criminally charged, Alpha News reported September 21, and nothing in the public reporting describes a finding of fraud by either center.

“These agencies are on our radar. … If a provider is part of an open investigation, the department cannot by law disclose details.” – Minnesota Department of Human Services, statement as published by Fox News (September 2026)

Revalidation checks an agency’s enrollment information, credentials, staff qualifications, ownership disclosures, and background studies, and includes a site visit. Failing it is not, by itself, a finding of fraud. By the May 31 deadline, DHS had reviewed 5,583 high-risk providers and notified 3,411 that they would be disenrolled, most over incomplete or inaccurate paperwork and 916 after a failed site visit. It referred 59 to its Office of Inspector General for further review. Those figures predate the appeals and say nothing about why either center was notified. In an October 6 update, DHS said that “more than half of the providers who received disenrollment notices have since met the requirements.”

DHS’s July guidance says providers working through revalidation appeals will not be terminated until a decision is made, and CBS News Minnesota reported in June that billing had been restored for about 2,140 appellants. That guidance does not address other payment actions, and the September statements do not say whether either center can bill today; DHS described both as terminated and said both had appealed.

A separate check applies to every EIDBI agency. Under the state’s licensing transition, EIDBI agencies enrolled before July 1, 2025, had to apply for a provisional license by May 31, 2026, and DHS must issue or deny each application by December 31. DHS told Alpha News that neither center had been issued one; it did not say whether either had applied. An unissued license is not a denial, and a denial can be appealed; if an agency appeals a license denial, suspension, or revocation, the statute bars license-based disenrollment until a final order affirms the action, and separate enrollment or payment actions can still apply. DHS’s statement listed three things that bar an agency from billing: missing the application deadline, a denial, or termination from enrollment.

What One Former Employee Said

The allegations come from Grant Morgan, whom Alpha News identified as a former therapist in the EIDBI program. He said he worked in the program for about two years, including at both centers, with roughly two months at Milestone in late 2023, and has since left Minnesota. His employment and credentials have not been independently verified. “At both Milestone and Spectrum, I noticed a lack of oversight and a low quality of services,” he said, and “I saw practitioners at both centers that were unqualified to do the work.”

His specific claims concern Milestone. Morgan told Alpha News he did not see a qualified supervising professional, or QSP, the clinician the state requires to direct every EIDBI case, or a BCBA “at all” during his time there. The published material does not establish Milestone’s staffing or supervision arrangements in late 2023. He also said he was never asked to write a session note while at Milestone. That account does not establish what records the center kept or what it billed. Morgan also said the clients he saw at Milestone did not appear to him to be autistic, and that he suspected billing fraud, while acknowledging he did not work in billing. Neither claim establishes a false diagnosis or identifies a fraudulent claim; EIDBI eligibility is set by a professional evaluation and covers autism or a related condition.

Ahmed disputed the account in comments to Alpha News. She denied that the center lacked a QSP or a BCBA, said every child had an autism diagnosis before starting, and said the center follows the state’s requirements and is audited regularly; she also said that questioning the care at her center was “bias.” Alpha News reported a denial from Spectrum’s owner as well. Those are published responses. No clinical or billing records were reviewed for this article.

Morgan’s account concerns late 2023. The law then required EIDBI intervention to be provided under the direction of a QSP and required agencies to keep records of each service. The one-hour-per-16-hours clinical supervision minimum, with an exception for a ratio authorized in a child’s treatment plan, took effect January 1, 2026, and cannot establish a violation in 2023. Under current DHS guidance, a QSP need not be a BCBA, but an agency that practices ABA must employ a licensed behavior analyst, and a BCaBA works under a BCBA’s supervision. Minnesota’s behavior-analyst licensure requirement began January 1, 2025. QSP oversight and the BACB’s supervision requirement for BCaBAs already existed in 2023 and would be judged under the rules then in force.

DHS requires a case note for each service, signed by the provider who delivered it, and says it recovers payment for undocumented services. The reporting identifies no particular undocumented claim, and the DHS statements published in September do not identify the period the investigations cover.

How a Friendship Became a Headline

The coverage developed through several dated reports. On December 25, 2025, Somali TV of Minnesota posted a video of Flanagan’s visit to Karmel Mall, where she called the Somali community “part of the fabric of the state of Minnesota” and, naming Ahmed, said they had been friends for almost 25 years. Fox News and the Daily Caller News Foundation covered the video the next day; neither story mentioned Milestone.

On September 18, 2026, Alpha News, a conservative Minnesota outlet, published Morgan’s interview under the headline “EXCLUSIVE: Former therapist slams ‘fraudulent autism centers’ in Minnesota, including one run by Flanagan’s ‘friend.’” The word “fraudulent” in that headline is Morgan’s; the DHS statement in the same story says investigations are open and that both agencies were terminated under revalidation and appealed, and it does not use the word. The podcast episode carrying the interview is dated September 17; the article appeared September 18. Alpha News reported that Flanagan’s campaign did not respond to its questions.

On September 21, the story went national, and the headlines moved past the record. Fox News ran it as “MN Dem Senate candidate’s viral hijab video takes new turn as woman beside her faces major state investigation,” reporting DHS’s confirmation to Fox News Digital and saying it had sought comment from the campaign and from Milestone. Townhall’s headline said Flanagan’s friend was “Now Under Investigation for Running Fake Autism Center”; the cited DHS statements do not describe Milestone as a fake center or announce any finding of fraud. RedState said “Minnesota Autism Fraud Probe Reaches Lt. Governor’s Inner Circle,” and LifeZette said the investigation “Closes In on Lt. Governor’s Inner Circle”; in its published statements, DHS has not said the investigations concern fraud, and no outlet has reported that they reach anyone but the two centers. Trending Politics headlined it “Dem Nominee’s Scandal Deepens” while its own text said there is “no evidence that Flanagan is personally involved in the investigation into Milestone or accused of wrongdoing related to the center.” Alpha News’s own September 21 follow-up drew on a 2006 Mshale profile and campaign-finance records. The other September 21 pieces, Townhall, RedState, LifeZette, Trending Politics, and IJR, repeated Alpha News’s interview and the DHS statement and published no agency finding.

On September 22, the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative Minnesota think tank, published a still from the December video and discussed Ahmed’s political connections; Alpha News’s September 21 follow-up had already identified her beside Flanagan. As of October 7, targeted web searches by BreakingNewsABA found no reporting on these two investigations from the Star Tribune, MPR News, Sahan Journal, KSTP, or the Minnesota Reformer.

The political calendar is the context. Flanagan, lieutenant governor since 2019, won the August 11 DFL primary over U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and faces Republican Michele Tafoya on November 3 for the seat Sen. Tina Smith is leaving. Oversight of fraud in state programs was a central issue in the primary; Craig told Flanagan in a July debate that she “continues to take absolutely no accountability for any of the fraud issues.” That is a campaign charge, not a finding about either provider. Ahmed, for her part, has a long record in Minnesota DFL politics: a 2007 profile in Mshale, an African-community newspaper in Minneapolis, described her as a Minneapolis City Council policy aide, a co-founder of the Minnesota League of Young Voters, and a base director for Amy Klobuchar’s 2006 Senate campaign, and a 2010 MPR News item and Alpha News both describe her as a former DFL state director.

The reviewed reports establish no role for Flanagan in either center’s operations, billing, revalidation outcome, or investigations. Alpha News published, and Townhall repeated, the former employee’s speculation that she might have been involved, without any evidence supporting it, and no outlet has reported any.

AT A GLANCE

SOURCES & REFERENCES