PORTLAND — An Auburn man charged in federal court with welfare fraud was freed from jail Friday.
Garat Osman, 32, had been held in federal custody for more than a week pending a detention hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court.
Osman was released with an electronic monitoring device equipped with a built-in GPS unit that will enable pretrial supervisors to track his movements. Pending trial, he is not allowed to leave Androscoggin County without permission from his supervisors at the U.S. Pretrial and Probation Office, according to court papers.
Osman was freed on personal recognizance and has signed a $5,000 bond to ensure he will appear in court for hearings.
He may not apply for a passport and may not have any contact with any witnesses or victims involved in the investigation.
Osman’s co-defendant, Abdirashid Ahmed, 38, of Lewiston, was released this week on similar conditions.
Osman hired a Portland attorney to represent him.
Ahmed and Osman were arrested last week, each charged with health care fraud involving MaineCare — Maine’s Medicaid program — and receiving health care kickbacks for more than two years.
Both men are accused of referring MaineCare beneficiaries to an unnamed (in the indictment) health care provider and served as Somali interpreters, according to investigators.
The indictment also said from May 2015 to December 2017, Ahmed and Osman conspired to defraud MaineCare by billing the program for interpreting services not rendered or partially rendered.
Fraudulent bills were submitted to MaineCare that overstated the health and interpreter services provided. MaineCare reimbursed the provider based upon that fraudulent billing, according to the indictment.
If convicted, Ahmed and Osman each face up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, each may also be ordered to pay restitution to MaineCare.
Both men made initial appearances last week in U.S. District Court, where they pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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