MaineCare auditors attempted to recoup nearly $450,000 from the Somali-run Affinity Homecare, co-located with Rep. Yusuf Yusuf’s (D-Portland) shady Care for Everyone and a foreign money transfer station.
According to records obtained by the Maine Wire via a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request, auditors with the Office of MaineCare Services could find no documentation showing that the services for which Affinity billed the taxpayer-funded welfare program actually took place.
Affinity, according to Medicaid payment records obtained by The Maine Wire, received $1,157,503 in taxpayer-funded MaineCare payouts from 2020 to 2024.
One of the multiple addresses listed for Affinity across records is 49 Dartmouth Street, Portland, where Rep. Yusuf listed his business’ address in ethics filings. The address also houses a foreign money transfer station operated by a man named Bashir M. Shuriye.
Audit
Auditors looked at Affinity’s transactions from January 1, 2020, through February 5, 2022, and demanded that the seemingly fraudulent home care business repay $445,262, a full recoupment of all transactions during the audited period.
Auditors could not find documentation showing that even one of the services billed for during that period was actually provided.
“Due to not receiving records, SGS not only denied the sample, but all claims paid between January 1, 2020 and February 5, 2022. This extended sample was 403 unique claims, 775 services and 67,979 service units for a total paid of $445,262.45,” said the Office of MaineCare Services in its notice of violation.
Though the audit only examined transactions up to early 2022, auditors first sent the notice of violation in early 2024, and Affinity continued to draw Medicaid funds, taking $272,519 in 2023 and $237,107 in 2024.
While Medicaid payment records obtained by The Maine Wire only show payments through 2024, there is no indication that payments to Affinity were stopped. Both business and licensing records confirm that the agency remains active.
Given that auditors could not verify that even one of the 67,979 billed service units during the audited period actually took place, it seems unlikely that Affinity’s subsequent billing requests were any more legitimate.
The notice of violation sent to Affinity outlined the several months auditors spent trying to get in contact with the company, shedding more doubt on its legitimacy.
After receiving an email address in May 2022, auditors sent out an email requesting records from Affinity. Using computer records, they verified that someone from Affinity had viewed and downloaded the request, but the company failed to respond.
After multiple attempts to contact Affinity, the company’s registered agent, who goes by the name Mohamed Mohamed, finally answered a call and discussed the records request.
That call took place on June 30, 2022. After that, Mohamed failed to communicate with the auditors for years despite repeated attempts to contact him.
In August of that year, an auditor called the number listed for Affinity, and a woman picked up. She reportedly hung up when the auditor asked her to confirm Affinity’s mailing address.
In the last attempt listed on the timeline, auditors physically visited two addresses they had on file for Affinity: 63 Ocean Street in South Portland and 175 Lancaster Street in Portland.
Auditors found nothing at either location to suggest that Affinity even existed.
Medicaid recipients have only 60 days to appeal recoupment requests. Finally, over six months after receiving the notice of violation and recoupment request, Mohamed reached out to auditors to provide additional records.
Audit records give no indication that investigators accepted the documents submitted months after the appeal deadline.
Records do not provide any indication of whether Affinity ever actually paid back any of the funds it received.
The Maine Wire reached out to the number listed in audit records, and a person answered, claiming to be Mohamed Mohamed of Affinity Home Care.
He told The Maine Wire that Affinity is still in operation. When asked about audit results, he said that his business is currently repaying the funds, though The Maine Wire cannot independently verify that.
If what Mohamed said is true, it would mean that Affinity is likely continuing to draw Medicaid benefits while repaying the benefits it previously received in installments.
When we requested a comment on Affinity’s failure to provide records to auditors that proved any of the services it billed for took place, Mohamed abruptly hung up.
Business Details and Ties to Yusuf Yusuf
A look at records from the DHHS Division of Licensing Services reveals an apparent failure of communication between auditors and licensing officials working for the same department, a theme seen in more than one of The Maine Wire’s investigations into home care businesses.
Records reveal that Affinity has maintained an active license since 2019 without any interruptions, despite its catastrophically failed audit.
Affinity passed with “no deficiencies” when licensing personnel conducted a supposedly “on-site” inspection in February 2025.
The “on-site” inspection is particularly noteworthy because auditors visited Affinity’s alleged physical locations and could find no sign at all of the business.
That suggests that either licensing inspectors are falsely claiming to conduct inspections or that licensing personnel are working with completely different information regarding Affinity’s location than the auditors.
Licensing records place Affinity at 49 Dartmouth Street, which is different from the 63 Ocean Street listed in the audit and Medicaid records. However, according to records, the Medicaid recipient only started using that address in November, months after the inspection.
It is unclear where, if anywhere, licensing inspectors actually conducted the supposedly “on-site” inspection.
Business records on OpenCorporates list the Ocean Street location as Affinity’s mailing address and Dartmouth Street as its head office.
Affinity shares its Dartmouth Street address with Yusuf’s Care for Everyone, according to his source of income filing with the Maine Ethics Commission. Yusuf’s business raked in $1,212,852 in taxpayer-funded Medicaid cash from 2020 through 2024, according to MaineCare payment records.
Yusuf also served as the agent for the now-inactive Mogadishu Market, which was also located at 49 Dartmouth Street.
Maine’s Department of Professional and Financial Regulation’s Consumer Credit Protection Office maintains a list of all money transfer stations in the state, most recently updated on October 16, 2025.
According to that list, 49 Dartmouth Street also houses a World Direct Link money transfer station operated by Bashir M. Shuriye. He also operates Shuriye Tax Service, B&M Realty Group, and ABC Driving School, all out of the same address.
In case the purpose of World Direct Link wasn’t immediately obvious, the company’s website includes a helpful graphic visualizing funds being drained out of the U.S. into numerous foreign nations, including Somalia and China.
There is no way to determine how much of the money obtained by Affinity was transferred out via Shuriye’s transfer station.
Despite the failed audit and suspicious details surrounding Affinity, they remain, at least on paper, an active organization.
They even maintain a website, though it does little to assuage concerns over the home care business’s legitimacy, or lack thereof.
The website homepage includes what appears to be AI-generated images of elderly patients and describes the business as “the most reliable Home Care Agency in Portland Maine area [sic].”
The site includes a “book online” button, which states that prospective clients can book services for $35 per hour. However, clicking on the button brings up a message stating that the service is not yet available.
