Inside the St. Paul building at the center of a Medicaid fraud investigation

An imposing office building along University Avenue in St. Paul is at the center of an FBI investigation into another potential fraud in Minnesota.

Last week, the FBI searched the office of Brilliant Minds Services LLC on the first floor of the Griggs-Midway building, a large, low-slung office complex dominating the corner of University and Fairview avenues as “part of an investigation into a massive scheme to defraud the Housing Stabilization Services Program,” according to a search warrant affidavit filed in federal court. The housing program was established to help seniors and people with disabilities find and maintain housing.

This building, the FBI affidavit points out, houses 22 businesses described as providing housing services that took in a combined $8 million between January 2024 and this May. That’s far more money than the state estimated the entire program would cost. The investigation could grow as state officials are looking into dozens more providers connected to the Griggs-Midway building.

Temporary Human Services Commissioner Shireen Gandhi said the agency, which runs the housing stabilization program, has expanded its investigation in the Griggs-Midway building.

“These efforts have included a careful review of billing data, licensing and program integrity site visits and reviews, and continued collaboration with our law enforcement partners,” Gandhi said. “As a result, DHS has opened approximately 40 investigations into providers associated with this building and stopped payments everywhere we have seen evidence of fraud.”

DHS’ statement came in response to criticism from Republican Rep. Kristin Robbins, chair of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, who said DHS was not “upholding its end of the social contract with citizens.”

“If they were doing site visits, a site visit would have uncovered that 22 are there,” said Robbins, a Maple Grove Republican. “Or even an address check, right? All these different businesses located at the same physical address with a different suite number.”

It would be impossible to know from wandering the quiet halls of Griggs-Midway last week that the FBI had searched an office suite the day before. A handful of people popped in and out of offices along the dim gray corridors that serve several businesses there investigated for Medicaid fraud.

Griggs-Midway is an enormous, yet quiet structure on 7 acres with 500,000 square feet of offices.

While its gray decor is nondescript and its elevators dated, the facility offers all manner of relatively inexpensive office suites.

Outside, a sign advertises office suites from 200 to 30,000 square feet. A website dedicated to the building says small office suites start as low as $475. Two-room offices start at $700 — or $800 with windows.

The hallways are lined with small office suites, many of them vacant. Businesses from bookkeepers and small nonprofits to home health agencies, adult day cares, therapists and salons take up the dozens of offices on each floor.

Brilliant Minds, which the affidavit claims has billed Medicaid without providing the services for which it was paid, was the only provider housed at Griggs-Midway to be searched last week. Several other locations associated with other providers were also searched.

The affidavit filed in federal court says the housing program has been “extremely vulnerable to fraud,” and the spending on Medicaid-funded services, originally projected to cost $2.6 million total per year, has exploded. Providers billed a total of $104 million last year.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond to inquiries about whether more searches might take place at Griggs-Midway. Property managers for the building, Progressive Management Investments, did not respond to requests for comment.

The investigation into housing stabilization providers is the latest in a series of high-profile accusations of fraud in Minnesota.

The state was home to the nation’s largest pandemic-era fraud, the Feeding Our Future case, which saw $250 million meant to feed hungry children diverted by those running the operations and spent on luxury goods and travel for themselves, among other things.