The Justice Department announced October 8, 2026 that a federal jury in St. Paul convicted Sharmaine Meadows, 45, of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, of a scheme to steal $3.6 million from the now-defunct Minnesota Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) Program.
Evidence at trial showed Meadows billed the program for housing services meant to move unhoused people into housing and help them keep it, without providing the services. The program allowed providers to bill up to 150 hours of transitional services and 150 hours of sustaining services per beneficiary. DOJ says Meadows told employees to maximize billings to the 150-hour cap even when the hours were not worked, and billed for in-person hours supposedly worked by employees who were in other states and countries, including the Philippines.
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division said the program shut down entirely after its costs outran estimates by 4,000 percent.