Federal immigration agents Tuesday afternoon visited a Maine company ensnared in Medicaid fraud allegations office in Lewiston, the company’s lawyer said.
Federal agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations stopped at Gateway Community Service’s office along with other locations in the state’s second largest city Tuesday as part of an audit, the agency said in a social media post Tuesday afternoon. Gateway’s lawyer, Pawel Binczyk said the company has no information about the visit as the office was closed at the time.
Homeland Security Investigations is the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In its post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Homeland Security Investigations New England posted several images of agents in front of various buildings in Lewiston. An HSI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
“HSI is actively conducting audits of businesses in Maine to protect America from fraud & ensure businesses only employ legal workers,” the post said. “Hiring unauthorized workers risks severe penalties & undermines national security,” it said. “The best way to protect your business is by following the law.”
Last week the Maine Department of Health and Human Services halted MaineCare payments to Portland-based Gateway Community Services amid an investigation into “credible allegations of fraud.” It followed federal prosecutors charging in fraud schemes involving Somali immigrants in Minnesota, where individuals are accused of setting up companies that defrauded welfare programs.
That move came a day after the company and a former employee, Rep. Deqa Dhalac, D-South Portland, were identified in a letter sent to the U.S. Treasury by U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House oversight committee. Comer’s letter directly tied for the first time Gateway to a committee’s investigation that has largely been focused on Minnesota.
Last week, Gateway furloughed employees amid the MaineCare payment pause as the company gathers more information about the allegations the state has made, Binczyk said. The company denies any criminal wrongdoing.
The same day federal agents stopped at Gateway’s office in Lewiston, legislative Republicans held a State House news conference in Augusta calling on Democratic leaders to remove Dhalac from the Legislature’s budget committee. They also called on Gov. Janet Mills along with Democratic leaders and state agencies to further investigate allegations of MaineCare fraud.
House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, told reporters that he will be sending a letter later calling for Dhalac’s removal from the Legislature’s budget committee. Dhalac responded in a statement by saying she worked for Gateway for less than a year and had no involvement in the company’s billing practices.
“Any accusations that I participated in illegal activities aren’t just unequivocally false – they are also reckless and harmful,” she said. “I take seriously the state’s responsibility to serve as a good steward of taxpayer dollars, and I support the investigation to hold accountable any individuals who misuse public funds.”
Federal agents on the ground in Lewiston also mark an escalation in the pressure being applied to the company that has been the subject of fraud allegations since the Maine Wire, the media arm of the conservative Maine Policy Institute, first reported on a former employee’s fraud allegations against the company in May.
It also comes a week after the Bangor Daily News published a story detailing a federal investigator’s five-year-old report that identified a concerning pattern within MaineCare spending on interpreting services.
That report found that interpreter claims made to MaineCare surged by 283% between 2011 and 2017, with costs rising from roughly $800,000 to more than $4.1 million annually. The increase occurred as the number of refugees and immigrants arriving in Maine declined. The investigator took a closer look at billing trends following the high-profile prosecution of two interpreters, two social workers and a counselor in 2019.