Somali-American Received Millions in U.S. Taxpayer Dollars, Maine Care Funding While Claiming to Bankroll Jubaland Militia https://www.themainewire.com/2025/03/somali-american-received-millions-in-u-s-taxpayer-dollars-mainecare-funding-while-claiming-to-bankroll-jubaland-militia/ Edward Tomic and Steve Robinson contributed to this report

Maine Wire Staff By Maine Wire Staff March 21, 2025Updated:March 21,

Somali-American Abdullahi Ali has had a prolific life since arriving in Lewiston, Maine as a refugee in 2009.

Ali has become a U.S. citizen,started a nonprofit to help fellow immigrants, started several businesses, including a multi-million dollar Maine Care-funded migrant services agency, and even --- according to an interview he gave to Kenyan media — managed to raise money in the U.S. to buy weapons, munitions, and supplies for a paramilitary force he had hoped to lead as president of Jubaland, Somalia.

But his knack for running a celebrated migrant agency out of Portland didn’t translate into electoral success last November when he failed to win the convoluted and disputed presidential race in Jubaland.

In an an interview with Kenyan media, Ali had previously boasted of his efforts to raise funds for para-military forces in Somalia, forces he hoped would back his claim to power should he win the presidential election.

“When I was in the U.S., I contributed to the financial support for the Jubaland-Somali army. To help the troops buy weapons, bullets and food,” said Ali.

“I helped pay my share of the fund,” he said.

At the same time Ali was helping finance arms deals in Somalia, he was also serving as the executive director and nominal head of Gateway Community Services, LLC and Gateway Community Services, Maine.

Ali’s taxpayer funding, political connections, and boasts about funding Somali arms deals raise questions about whether U.S. taxpayer dollars were involved in paying for paramilitary activities aimed at influencing Somali elections, as well as whether Ali acted as an unregistered foreign agent while receiving millions in taxpayer dollars.

According to records obtained via the Freedom of Access Act, Gateway Community Services, LLC received$28.8 million in payments via Maine Care, Maine’s version of Medicaid,from 2019 through 2024, including $4.1 million last year, while Ali was running for office with his militia in Somalia.

In April 2020, the LLC received $693,382 in taxpayer dollars under the Paycheck Protection Program, funding that allegedly backstopped 127 full-time jobs.

Other documents show that Gateway, while it was being run by Ali and Assistant Executive Director Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland),owed a debt to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services of nearly $800,000 due to improper payments the company received under Maine Care. According to a March 2022 letter to Ali, a sample audit of reimbursement claims Gateway filed with Maine Care found a 36 percent error rate, resulting in Gateway receiving an estimated $903,938.95 in improperly paid taxpayer dollars.

It’s unclear from the letter whether that debt was ever settled.

According to public tax records, Gateway Community Services (the nonprofit, rather than the similarly named for-profit LLC) earned just over $1.5 million in revenue in fiscal year 2023, with $1.3 million of that revenue being from government grants. That represented a significant increase in taxpayer funding for the non-profit, which received just $135,561 in 2019 and $488,531 in 2020, according to tax documents.