Are there whistleblower or False Claims Act cases involving autism therapy fraud in Minnesota since 2020?

1. What’s been charged so far — the first criminal headline

Federal prosecutors filed the first criminal charge tied to the autism-provider investigation on Sept. 24, 2025, accusing Asha Farhan Hassan of wire fraud for allegedly using Smart Therapy LLC to bill EIDBI for services not provided and to submit fraudulent Child Nutrition claims; prosecutors say Smart Therapy obtained more than $14 million from Medicaid and about $465,000 from the Child Nutrition program ^{[4] [7] [8] [3]}.

2. How the investigation unfolded — raids, warrants and agency action

The probe became public after December 2024 FBI search warrants at autism centers including Smart Therapy Center and Star Autism Center; unsealed warrant materials allege extensive suspicious billing, unqualified staff, and claims for services when providers were allegedly out of the country, prompting state and federal scrutiny and payment withholds by Minnesota DHS ^{[1] [5] [9]}.

3. Whistleblowers and internal reporting — what the sources say

Reporting cites internal complaints and at least one former supervisor who said she tried to report negligence and possible fraud to state officials prior to the raids; journalists and prosecutors reference whistleblower tips as part of a widening probe, but the public record in these sources emphasizes criminal warrants and indictments rather than a filed qui tam False Claims Act lawsuit ^{[8] [5] [9]}.

4. False Claims Act (qui tam) suits — what’s missing from coverage

Available articles, press releases and court filings in the provided set document criminal charges and agency investigations but do not cite any specific False Claims Act (qui tam) civil suits brought in Minnesota against autism therapy providers since 2020. Therefore, sources do not report a named qui tam plaintiff or filed FCA complaint in this matter ^{[4] [3] [9]}.

5. Scale and context — why journalists and officials flagged rapid growth

Multiple outlets and warrant statements emphasize a sharp rise in EIDBI enrollments and Medicaid payments over recent years and a rapid proliferation of providers in Minnesota; prosecutors and FBI affidavits tie that growth to the focus of their investigations, asserting that some providers billed for high volumes of services and used unqualified staff ^{[5] [9] [10]}.

6. Connection to other fraud probes — “Feeding Our Future” and beyond

Prosecutors say the autism-provider allegations intersect with the Feeding Our Future child-nutrition fraud and earlier Housing Stabilization Services prosecutions; Hassan and Smart Therapy are alleged to have participated in both schemes, which has shaped federal investigators’ view of an interconnected fraud network ^{[4] [8] [2]}.

7. Claims, counterclaims and community implications

Some reporting highlights allegations that recruiters targeted particular communities; at the same time sources caution that criminal allegations are charges, not convictions, and that broader narratives tying entire communities to fraud appear in editorial and partisan outlets in the dataset — those narratives sometimes extend beyond the public evidence cited by prosecutors ^{[11] [12] [13] [14]}.

8. Practical takeaway for your question

If you’re looking specifically for whistleblower False Claims Act litigation in Minnesota involving autism therapy fraud since 2020, the supplied sources document criminal investigations, search warrants and at least one criminal charge (Sept. 2025) but do not identify a public FCA qui tam filing; available sources instead emphasize criminal referrals, agency audits and investigative reporting ^{[1] [3] [8]}.

Limitations: my summary uses only the provided search results; the absence of a cited qui tam suit in this set does not prove none exists beyond these documents — it means the current reporting in the supplied sources does not mention a False Claims Act case brought by a whistleblower (not found in current reporting).