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 MaineCare-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 MaineCare, 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 MaineCare. According to a March 2022 letter to Ali, a sample audit of reimbursement claims Gateway filed with MaineCare 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.
[RELATED: Migrant Resettlement Agency Chronically Over-billed MaineCare, Has Not Repaid Taxpayers: Audit…]
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.
Ali, in his role as executive director of the nonprofit arm of Gateway, took compensation of $12,825.
State Rep. Dhalac, a member of the State Legislature’s powerful appropriations committee, served as assistant executive director at Gateway at the same time DHHS’ Program Integrity unit was attempting to recoup nearly $800k in improperly billed claims. According to financial disclosures Dhalac has filed with the Maine Ethics Commission, she listed her employer as “Gateway Community Services” in 2021, 2022, and 2023. However, her 2024 disclosure lists only “Cross Cultural Community Services,” an entity from which she reported self-employment income in the three years she served as assistant executive director at Gateway.
The non-profit arm of Gateway has also come under legal and media scrutiny in recent years. According to a Jan. 2022 report from the Portland Press Herald, Abdullahi and Gateway were implicated in a federal investigation into wage fixing among migrant-run health care agencies, though Abdullahi denied any knowledge of the conspiracy.
According to one of the defendants in that case, Ali, who was never named as a defendant and was never indicted, was the person who drafted the agreement. When the Press Herald reported questioned Ali about this, the reporter said he hung up the phone.
Although Dhalac appears to no longer work for Ali at Gateway, the pair appear to remain close. Both Dhalac and Ali accompanied Office of New Americans Director Tarlan Ahmadov on a controversial junket to Azerbaijan, paid for by the government of Azerbaijan.
Neither Dhalac nor Ali have responded to inquiries about the trip to Azerbaijan.
Ali and Dhalac have also ignored questioned about whether U.S. tax dollars were used to finance Ali’s support for Somali arms, munitions, and para-military troops.
A search of U.S. Justice Department records for the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) does not show any indication that Ali ever registered as a foreign agent during the time when he claimed to have raised money in the U.S. for the benefit of Somali para-military groups.
When the Maine Wire began making inquiries to Ali about Gateway Community Services and his claim to have funded arms deals in Somalia, Ali deleted his personal Facebook page and his LinkedIn account.
However, his “Dr. Abdullahi Ali for President, Jubaland State, Somalia” Facebook page remains active and continues to document his international exploits, including his March 8 visit to the Saudi embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and his Jan. 16 meeting with the Pakistani Ambassador to Ethiopia, Atif Sharif.
Jubaland’s November 2024 Election
Despite his success moving from refugee to successful owner of a multi-million dollar social services agency, Abdullahi Ali proved a poor candidate for office in Jubaland. In Nov. 2024, he lost the election, though the results have been disputed by various parties, including Ali.
Jubaland is a semi-autonomous state located in southern Somali, and the Jubaland-Somali Army that Ali has helped fund from within the U.S. often works in coordination with the Somali National Army (SNA) to defend the region from Islamic terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab.
However, tensions often arise between the central Somali government in Mogadishu and the government of Jubaland over how power should be delegated between the two levels of the federal system, especially when it comes to control over the lucrative port city of Kismayo, where Ali was born. The federal government has also clashed with state governments over plans to move to more democratic “one person, one vote” systems as opposed to the current system where only clan elders vote and winning candidates must fund militias in order to claim victory.
Leadership in Mogadishu has also questioned the legitimacy of Jubaland’s current president, Ahmed Mohamed Madobe, who has been in power since 2013, the year Jubaland was formed. Madobe was supposed to be term-limited out last year, hence Ali’s campaign for office. But the incumbent candidate re-wrote the constitution to allow him to remain in office, leading to Jubaland holding two separate presidential elections, with the national government questioning the legitimacy of each.
To put it into American terms, it would be like Gov. Janet Mills rewriting the Maine constitution to run for a third term and holding her own election, while Shawn Moody and Rick Bennett held a separate election. Then, President Donald Trump sent in the military, while Bennett and Moody each commanded paramilitary forces of their own.
Ali contested the changes Madobe made in the summer of 2024 that allowed him to run again for the presidency of Jubaland and, in a series of videos posted to social media, he denied the legitimacy of Madobe’s apparent victory in the November election.
Although Ali has spoken positively about his time in Maine and the United States, he has joined other Somali refugees in Minnesota and dedicated time and resources to heavy involvement with politics in his native country.
In June, Ali traveled to Minneapolis to hold a political event with Somali politicians from Minnesota, another state that has a large Somali diaspora population, to announce his candidacy for president of Jubaland.
Images published to social media as part of Ali’s candidacy show him walking with multiple men dressed in camouflage fatigues and carrying what appear to be AK-47s. Other photos published on his campaign account show what appears to be an armed convoy.
Ali did not succeed in his Jubaland presidential bid and his attempts to contest the results of the election were not successful. However, questions remain about exactly how he managed to finance both his political operation, extensive travel, and the arms and soldiers backing his militia.
In addition to legitimacy and broad suffrage, Jubaland’s elections also lack campaign finance disclosures, so there’s no available record — other than Ali’s public comments — to indicate precisely how his campaign and militia were funded.
Ali did not respond to an email asking how managed to finance his armed para-military group.
Business Records and COVID-Era Grants
A review of Ali’s business records, as well as records related to his associates, suggests a web of businesses and non-profits that have either failed to take off or operated under the radar. In addition, some businesses operating out of his 501 Forest Ave location in Portland have connections back to Minnesota.
In addition to Gateway, Ali has formed several for profit ventures, including Gateway Communications and Financial Services LLC in 2018, Boundless Media LLC in 2020, Thinkdelivery, LLC in 2018, and Laafyo Consulting LLC in 2023.
According to federal records, only Gateway Community Services LLC was approved for a $687,500 PPP loan on April 11, 2020, a loan that was forgiven in Feb. 2021.
The federal records indicate that the loan helped save 127 jobs in the “All Other Miscellaneous Ambulatory Health Care Services” industry.
Similarly, Ali’s nonprofit — Gateway Community Services, Maine — was approved for a smaller $11,200 PPP loan on May 4, 2020, which was forgiven in May 2021. The low amount of the loan for the non-profit is odd, considering the non-profit arm of Gateway reported paying $527k in salaries and wages in 2021.
Thinkdelivery LLC, a shipping and courier company, was previously known as Deliveryplus LLC.
Most of these businesses operate out of 501 Forest Ave in Portland. One other business also shares that office address: Language Access Providers LLC, a translation service provider operated by Abdifatah Afrah, who also worked for more than two years at Gateway.
Although Language Access Providers LLC boasts of “serving the immigrant communities of Maine and beyond since 2017,” the company’s website lists three team members, Meet Nouf, First Name Last Name, and First Name Last Name — suggesting the company either has no team or has yet to complete its “Team” section.
Afrah appears to have significant connections back to Minnesota, where he has been involved with other health care, transportation, immigrant services and housing firms.
For example, Unity House Living L.L.C., formed in Oct. 2023 in Minnesota, list Abdifatah J. Afrah as a director, but lists a mailing address at 46 Tall Pines Dr. Apt 4, Lewiston, ME.
Gateway Community Services was awarded a $363,000 grant from the Maine DHHS under their “COVID-19 Vaccine Equity” initiative.
[RELATED: Maine DHHS Looks to Spend $200k on COVID-19 ‘Vaccine Equity’ Program…]
Gateway was among a multitude of immigrant services nonprofit organizations that received hundreds of thousands of dollars under the initiative:
- Maine Access Immigrant Network: $181,000
- Maine Association For New Americans: $363,000
- Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services: $470,300
- Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition: $689,000
- New Mainer’s Public Health Initiative: $330,500
According to Maine DHHS, the grants were awarded specifically to prioritize agencies that can provide services in languages other than English.
State Audits Show Gateway Community Services Overbilled MaineCare
Documents from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) show that under the leadership of Abdullahi Ali and Deqa Dhalac, Gateway Community Services came under scrutiny and underwent multiple audits for significant over-billing of the taxpayer-funded MaineCare program.
According a review of the audit findings, including the case level overpayment information, many of the improperly billed services included translation services Gateway couldn’t prove were actually provided.
The documents show that Gateway was cited for overpayments totaling nearly $1.1 million across two audit periods, with a third review reducing one of these amounts after appeal.
The first audit, covering Nov. 1, 2015, to Oct. 14, 2016, was detailed in a Notice of Violation (NOV) dated November 7, 2017. The DHHS Program Integrity Unit reviewed 240 randomly selected claims out of 3,795 submitted by Gateway, focusing on services like interpreter assistance, community integration, comprehensive assessments, and behavioral health counseling.
Findings from the DHHS included missing or incomplete documentation, such as unsigned assessments and individual service plans, late-signed progress notes, and billing for non-covered services like translating mail or vocational support.
The audit initially identified an overpayment of roughly $171,000, calculated from a 35.36% error rate applied to $564,068 in total claims, adjusted downward to account for sampling variability.
Gateway appealed this finding, triggering an informal review. On July 23, 2018, DHHS issued a Final Informal Review Decision, reducing the overpayment to just over $125,000 after accepting additional documentation for 21 claim lines.
However, issues persisted with interpreter services, where Gateway billed MaineCare $80 per hour despite paying interpreters $40, exceeding the customary rate allowed under MaineCare policy.
A second audit, spanning Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2018, resulted in a much larger overpayment claim. The NOV, dated March 22, 2022, examined 244 of 275 randomly selected claims from a universe of 20,932, covering interpreter services, targeted case management, and outpatient therapy.
Issues mirrored the earlier audit: missing or inadequate documentation, non-covered services like transportation or reading mail, and discrepancies in billing times.
The review found a 35.64% error rate, applied to $2,536,140.04 in total payments, yielding a preliminary overpayment of $903,938.95. Adjusted downward by $127,916.74, the final demand was about $776,000.
Gateway, State Representative Deqa Dhalac and the Office of New Americans
Rep. Dhalac, herself an immigrant to the U.S. from Somalia, worked as the assistant executive director of Ali’s Gateway Community Services until at least 2023.
Dhalac was reelected to her second term representing House District 120 last November, and holds a key position on the Maine Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, responsible for overseeing the state’s budget and fiscal policies.
A May 2022 Facebook post by Gateway Community Services announced her hiring to the position, stating that Dhalac would be “leading the strategic planning, board engagement, community-wide planning and partnership building for the organization.”
It appears as though Dhalac no longer works at Gateway, as her most recent state legislator income disclosure form no longer lists her position at the organization.
Dhalac is also the co-founder of the Portland-based Cross Cultural Community Services, a DEI consulting nonprofit, and is the vice president of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, representing a network of over 100 immigrant advocacy groups.
Dhalac also spearheaded the standalone bill to form Gov. Janet Mills’ Office of New Americans, the state migrant resettlement office. Although that legislation failed to pass, funding for the office was included in the budget passed at the end of the last legislative session.
Ekhlas Ahmed, who was recently appointed by Gov. Janet Mills as a policy analyst within the Maine Office of New Americans (ONA), was featured as a community health worker for Gateway Community Services in a 2021 testimonial video published by the nonprofit
Ahmed, who resettled in Maine through Catholic Charities after fleeing the civil war in Sudan in 2005, said in an April 2024 interview that she vows to “fight for Sudan” with all her capacities and advocated against the assimilation of immigrants.
