A whistleblower has gone public with fraud allegations against a Minnesota autism treatment center run by a close friend of Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, as state officials confirm the center is under active investigation.
Grant Morgan, a former autism therapist, worked inside Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBA) program at two facilities: the Milestone Development Center, run by Nimco Ahmed, and the Spectrum Therapy Center. Morgan says both centers engaged in fraudulent billing practices, and that Milestone in particular operated without the professional oversight required to run this kind of program.
“I did not see a QSP (Qualified Supervising Professional) or a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) at all when I worked there and it’s critical that you have a professional overseeing these services,” Morgan said.
Morgan told Alpha News he has documentation backing up his concerns.
I actually have an email conversation from 2023 stating that I did not believe their clients appeared to be autistic, and I also have a text message conversation from around that time telling someone that I was planning to leave that center because I had concerns related to fraud and that the owner, Nimco, didn’t seem to care.
Morgan does not claim all of the money is stolen. He said some of the growth in spending reflects real, previously unmet need going back to 2017 and 2018. But he does not believe that explains the scale of the increase.
I do believe a large portion of that is legitimate, but I do believe a lot of that is fraudulent, too. But I would not be surprised if half of that is fraudulent.
The numbers back up his suspicion that something changed dramatically. Billing for Minnesota autism treatment centers under the EIDBA program rose from $6 million in 2018 to $343 million in 2024 — a fifty-seven-fold increase that outpaces any plausible growth in autism diagnoses.
The Flanagan connection
Ahmed and Flanagan have publicly touted a friendship going back nearly 25 years. Flanagan has appeared alongside Ahmed at public events, including one where Flanagan wore a hijab while the two discussed their long relationship.
Ahmed has denied Morgan’s allegations. She told Alpha News that even questioning the quality of care at her center amounted to “bias.”
Minnesota’s Department of Human Services has confirmed that Milestone is under investigation. The state has already taken enforcement action against other autism centers caught up in similar fraud patterns. Both Ahmed and her center are entitled to due process, and that process is now underway.
Flanagan is currently running for U.S. Senate. Morgan, for his part, told Alpha News host Liz Collin that he only felt safe telling his story publicly after leaving Minnesota — a detail that raises its own questions about the climate surrounding these investigations.
Minnesota voters weighing Flanagan’s Senate bid will now have to reckon with what her longtime friend’s autism center may have been doing with taxpayer money, as the DHS investigation continues.
