Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Wednesday that his office has charged a Twin Cities man in connection with $7.3 million in Medicaid fraud.

The charge comes as lawmakers and Gov. Tim Walz are proposing new ways to tackle persistent fraud in Minnesota’s public assistance programs ahead of the 2025 legislative session.

According to the attorney general’s most recent charge, Chavis Willis billed with a Medicaid-funded business called 1-0 Granny’s Helpful Hands, based in South St. Paul, that claimed to provide nursing, housing and other community services to Medicaid recipients in Minnesota.

“When criminals defraud Medicaid, they are stealing money that should be providing health care to folks who are struggling financially,” Ellison said in a statement. “My office has a long record of success in holding Medicaid fraudsters accountable for cheating taxpayers and people in need, and we will keep doing so.”

Willis listed his mother, Raynell Finn, as the owner of Granny’s, but Ellison’s office found she was not involved in running the business. Since Willis has a criminal history of aiding and abetting second-degree murder, barring him from owning a Medicaid business, he falsely claimed his mother owned Granny’s, forging her signature and impersonating her in communication with the Minnesota Department of Human Services, according to the attorney general.

Willis also allegedly hired a biller with a criminal history, and together they billed Medicaid for services that were never provided, according to Ellison. After the biller went to jail for past crimes, Willis impersonated his mother to get the biller released so they could continue working — the biller has since pleaded guilty to felony theft, according to Ellison.

“Providers who submit false claims and falsify records for personal gain do real harm to our federal health care programs and the beneficiaries that these programs serve,” said Mario M. Pinto, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General in the Chicago region. “HHS-OIG, working together with our state law enforcement partners, is committed to ensuring that our taxpayer-funded health care programs are protected against fraud.”

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