The Bangor Daily News was the first to report this story. What you’re reading here would likely not be made public without the efforts of professional journalists asking questions, interviewing sources and obtaining documents.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services moved Tuesday to halt MaineCare payments to a Portland company that serves immigrants by asserting it had improperly billed for interpreting services and seeking to claw back more than $1 million.
The company, Gateway Community Services, received a notice of violation Tuesday from the department along with a notification that it was suspending payments while investigating “credible allegations of fraud.” The department’s unit reviewed 15,000 claims made to Gateway between March 2021 and December 2022 and is seeking to recoup nearly $1.1 million.
“The Department will continue to hold providers to the highest standards and ensure accountability in the use of public funds,” department spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said.
This is the third notice of violation against Gateway. Previous reviews of payments to Gateway found that between 2015 to 2018 it was overpaid about $660,000. Another review from 2024 is still pending an appeal. Tuesday’s move marked a significant escalation.
It came a day after U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House oversight committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury that flagged Gateway along with a host of current and former employees as potential targets of a broader welfare fraud investigation being conducted by the panel.
Comer’s letter directly tied for the first time Gateway to the committee’s investigation that has largely been focused on Minnesota. Among those listed from Gateway include founder Abdullahi Ali and state Rep. Deqa Dhalac, D-South Portland, a former Gateway employee.
Gateway’s lawyer, Pawel Bincyzk, confirmed earlier in the day that the company had received the notices but has little information on what the allegations are based on.
“Gateway stands by its previous statements on this issue and will continue to cooperate with the state as it has in the past,” he said.
The Maine Wire, the media arm of the conservative Maine Policy Institute, first reported on the letter. Earlier this year a former employee, Chris Bernardini, told that outlet he saw records falsified while working there from 2018 to 2025.
Bernardini’s allegations against his former employer have since resurfaced in national conservative news outlets after federal prosecutors charged dozens of people in fraud schemes involving Somali immigrants in Minnesota, where individuals are accused of setting up small companies that defrauded federal welfare programs.
Gateway denied Bernardini’s allegations in a statement earlier this month saying the past reporting is misleading and that employees have received death threats.
“These reckless narratives have real impacts on the thousands of Mainers, a majority of whom are not immigrants, that rely on Gateway for services, as well as the many employees, again many of whom are not immigrants, that work to assist those Mainers,” the company’s statement said.
Gateway was founded in 2015 by Ali, a Somali American who gained attention in 2024 when he declared his intent to run for president of Jubaland, an autonomous region in the southern part of the country. It is an influential group in Portland and Lewiston, which have the state’s largest African diaspora communities.
The company got just over $65,000 alongside other groups that applied for grants from the Maine Community Foundation from a $1.9 million fund intended to support victims of the 2023 Lewiston shooting. Maine Republicans including former Gov. Paul LePage, a 2nd Congressional District candidate, have recently criticized that award.
Assistant Maine Senate Minority Leader Matt Harrington, R-Sanford, has raised concerns since May about Gateway and more broadly about the state’s spending on interpreting services. He praised the congressional committee’s moves and criticized Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ administration despite calling the notice of violation a positive step.
“This is taxpayer money, and we should be looking into this, and I’m relieved that the federal government is finally stepping in, I think, largely due to the inaction of the leaders in Maine,” Harrington said.