The Portland-based Luna Home Care has continued to draw in millions of dollars in Medicaid funding despite failing to pay back any of the $262,120 in overbilled MaineCare payments they were ordered to repay.
From 2019-2025, Luna billed $3,711,041, with at least $1,690,967 of those funds paid to the business after they were hit with the recoupment request from auditors.
Luna’s address, 640 Brighton Ave., Portland, appears to be yet another single-building hub for home healthcare businesses drawing millions in Medicaid funding. According to business records, it also hosts Helping Hands Home Care, Hope Home Care, Al-Shawk Home Healthcare, and, until recently, Saveplus Home Care Services.
Luna’s Audit
Auditors looked at Luna’s billing from February 2020 through December 2021 and found that every billing claim reviewed was subject to recoupment.
The majority of the reviewed claims had no documentation to support that services were actually provided, others had incomplete documentation, and 18 claims showed that the number of hours on provider time cards was smaller than the number of hours for which the business billed taxpayers.
MaineCare’s Office of Program Integrity sent Luna’s executive director, Marian Abu, its notice of violation on March 13, 2023, ordering the company to repay $262,120.
Luna was given 60 days to appeal the recoupment request, but, based on audit records obtained by the Maine Wire, they did not appeal the decision.
Audit records for Luna included a single page of what appeared to be additional records from the homecare provider, but that page is not dated and does not mention any appeal.
Audit records provide no indication that the recoupment request was revised.
According to Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) payment data obtained by The Maine Wire through a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request, Luna never paid back any of the $262,120.
That failure has not prevented the state from continuing to funnel huge amounts of taxpayer money into the home care business.
The Maine Wire called Luna Home Care and spoke with someone who did not identify herself by name but who seemed to be Abu and referred to Luna as her business.
The Maine Wire asked her for comment on Luna’s Medicaid overbilling.
“Are you fishing for something that’s not relevant to the universe or to the world? At the moment there’s crisis [sic] called gas prices,” said Abu. “My business is legit, and you’re fishing the wrong person.”
“This matter, it has nothing to do with The Maine Wire,” she added.
During the four-minute call, she repeatedly refused to answer questions about her overbilling and instead insisted that her use of taxpayer money was none of our business, while berating The Maine Wire generally.
“The universe works in a magical way. I’m glad you called me on my number because I literally was looking for someone from The Maine Wire to let them know that you guys are worthless human beings,” she said.
Abu also claimed during the call that she pays The Maine Wire’s salaries, which is false.
She informed The Maine Wire that we are worthless human beings, referred to the entire staff as “a prick,” and insulted a reporter’s parents before hanging up.
Days after speaking to Abu, The Maine Wire visited 640 Brighton Ave. to try to get answers from her in person. She initially allowed The Maine Wire in before starting to record reporters and slamming the door on the Maine Wire’s cameraman.
She refused to answer any questions about Luna’s overbilling and eventually called police.
The Maine Wire left the building, and when officers arrived, they explained to the irate Abu that it was not a crime for reporters to ask her questions at her business address.
Luna doesn’t have a clean record with the DHHS Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services either.
In August 2025, an alleged “on site” inspection that appears to have simply been a desk review identified multiple issues with Luna’s record keeping.
Shortly after the inspection, Abu submitted a plan of corrections that was accepted by inspectors, though The Maine Wire cannot confirm whether she actually implemented the changes she promised to make.
According to a LinkedIn profile that apparently belongs to Abu, she worked at some point as a case manager at Catholic Charities, which has its own lengthy history of Medicaid overbilling and illegal immigrant resettlement.
Abu also seemingly has ties to the infamous Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services (MEIRS), which chronically overbilled Medicaid for ineligible expenses, including taking a client to McDonald’s.
A Maine Senate Democrats press release from 2018 identified a Marian Abu as MEIRS’ operations manager and included an image of someone who appears to be the same person now operating Luna.
[RELATED: Migrant Resettlement Agency Chronically Over-billed MaineCare, Has Not Repaid Taxpayers: Audit…]
While Abu does not serve as the registered agent for any other Maine businesses, there is a Marian Abu living in Lewiston listed on business records as one of many “directors” at the Florida-based Nuru Eyes Inc. non-profit.
According to records, the nonprofit incorporated in March 2025. The non-profit’s stated purpose is to provide eye care to people in “underserved” communities. It has two other Maine-based directors as well: Halima Abu, of Portland, and Samira Abu, of Yarmouth.
Al-Shawk
Al-Shawk Home Healthcare (aka Al-Shawk Home Care) has drawn in $7,390,939 from 2019-2025 and first began in 2017.
Auditors examined Al-Shawk’s billing throughout 2020, and found that they overbilled MaineCare by $37,517 when auditors found that Al-Shawk failed to submit proper documentation to support their billing on multiple occasions.
Al-Shawk requested an informal review of additional documentation, but the recoupment amount remained the same despite the additional information.
The MaineCare biller repaid the full amount of the recoupment request, according to records obtained by The Maine Wire.
The Maine Wire spoke with Al-Shawk business manager and owner Sarem Al-Shawk, who, in stark contrast with Luna’s Abu, was happy to speak about his business. He explained that the overbilling errors were due in part to the COVID pandemic.
“I mean, it was during Covid, and things, mistakes have happened at that time. Everything was just different. That’s pretty much it, honestly,” said Al-Shawk.
When asked why his business shared its location with so many other home healthcare providers, he explained that he does not know why so many are there but clarified that his business pre-dates other homecare providers at 640 Brighton.
“I’ve been here the oldest out of everybody in this building, and I don’t know why there are a lot of other home health care agencies,” said Al-Shawk. “Honestly can’t control the landlord from renting to other home health care agencies.”
The Maine Wire confirmed Al-Shawk’s claim via business records.
“So I honestly don’t know. I don’t have any suspicion, personally, because I’ve never seen anything, but I don’t know. I have no idea,” he said when asked if he had doubts about the legitimacy of the other businesses in the building.
Al-Shawk, a real-estate agent with the Maine Real Estate Co., also owns the Istanbul Restaurant and Bakery in Westbrook along with a significant number of other businesses, both active and inactive, including multiple registered at 640 Brighton.
At 640 Brighton, Al-Shawk is the registered agent for the active The Al-Shawk Group, OOB Enterprise, OOB Investment, and the now inactive Al-Shawk Community Services.
There is also the inactive Al-Shawk Interpreting Services, registered at a different Portland address to an attorney, and the currently operational Al-Shawk Enterprise at 17 Big Skye Ln., Durham, registered to Biddeford attorney Jason Liatlien.
According to business records, Al-Shawk Enterprise is also known as Old Orchard Beach Motel.
At the end of his phone call with The Maine Wire, Al-Shawk explained that he would be happy to speak again in the future and suggested that only businesses with something to hide would be afraid to answer our questions.
“Unless they have done something, then they would be afraid. If not, then there’s no need, like anybody else would ask; it’s not a big deal. So yeah, I’m glad to help. And if there’s anything that I can help with, also, I’ll be more than happy to,” he said.
Other Businesses at 640 Brighton
Saveplus Home Care, registered to Abdirahman Osman, operated out of 640 Brighton Ave until recently. According to business records, the home care company moved its registered address down the street to 885 Brighton Ave. in July 2025.
From 2021-2025, Saveplus billed $2,057,693 to MaineCare. DHHS records obtained by The Maine Wire show that the business paid back $49,057 to the department beginning in 2023.
It is not clear what the repayment was for, because no audit records related to Saveplus were among audit records obtained by the Maine Wire through a FOAA request.
Hope Home Care first started billing MaineCare the same year Saveplus moved offices and drew in a substantial $505,517 in their first year as a licensed home care provider.
The business was founded in August 2024 by Shizar Mahmond.
Helping Hands Home Care is even newer than Hope Home Care, having only incorporated in September 2025 under registered agent Mohammed Hussein Abdulhadi.
Helping Hands Home Care had not yet started drawing MaineCare funds by the end of 2025, and they do not appear in licensing records.
Mohammed Abdulhadi is not linked to any other Maine business records, though there was a short-lived A&G Property Management that operated from January to July 2025 out of 640 Brighton under registered agent Ali Abdulhadi.
640 Brighton is and has been the home of a variety of other businesses, including the currently operational Red Sea Inc.
According to business records, Red Sea is registered to Raed Ahmad Almamouri and was started in January 2026, though it is not clear what the business actually is or does.
The building has previously hosted multiple transportation businesses, including Dhigane Transportation Company, a medical transportation business operated by Jabir Warsame until it dissolved in September 2025.
It also housed Roadway Transportation, operated by Abdullah Ratib, which dissolved in the same month as Dhigane Transportation, and Hope Transportation, operated by Shizar Mahmoud, which also shut down in September 2025.
If you don’t pay child support, DHHS will have your driver’s license suspended, and I suspect they’ll do it for a whole lot less than six figures.
Why aren’t the driver’s licenses of these people being suspended?
These Somali thieves are laughing their black asses off .
What a gold mine these rubes from Maine have provided for them .
We are such idiots to have sat back and let this happen to us .
Anybody who actually thinks for one minute that we will ever get any of this money back is an idiot .