Somali UN ambassador linked to questionable Cincinnati health service agency, RFK Jr. deputy says

Somalia’s permanent representative to the United Nations – now serving as president of the U.N. Security Council – is "associated with" an Ohio home healthcare agency previously punished for ties to fraud, a top Health and Human Services official said Monday.

The East African nation has been in the headlines for weeks as a burgeoning childcare and social services fraud scandal that began in Minnesota largely featured people from the Somali community.

Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a statement that he "can confirm public speculation that Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman, Permanent Representative of Somalia to the UN and President of the Security Council, is in fact associated with Progressive Health Care Services, a home health agency in Cincinnati."

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"HHS has previously taken action against Progressive in response to a conviction for Medicaid fraud," O’Neill said before promising "more to come."

Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who declined comment.

O’Neill’s statement referenced claims about Osman and Progressive that had circulated online last week, including on the popular social media account LibsOfTikTok, run by commentator Chaya Raichik.

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"Somalia’s Ambassador to the UN Abukar Dahir Osman was a healthcare administrator in Ohio. There is another healthcare company in the same suite as his with a different name, and multiple others at the same address, all with Somali names," Raichik said.

"[Osman’s] company was convicted of Medicaid fraud while he worked in a Medicaid office in Ohio," she added. O’Neill also referenced that conviction.

State records show the company remains an active Ohio corporation, though its listed contact information did not connect Fox News Digital with a verified representative. A message left for a number linked to Osman was not returned. 

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Osman was a supervisor within the Franklin County, Ohio, Department of Job & Family Services Adult Medicaid unit from 2007 to 2012, according to his official U.N. biography.

He also founded a company called Beacon Educational Services sometime between 1999 and 2005, according to the U.N. He was also educated in the U.S., graduating from Illinois State University in 1986 before earning a master's degree in Ohio and another in Wisconsin.

Last week, O’Neill announced a pause on all childcare subsidies to Minnesota after a scandal involving the Walz administration erupted, before HHS later expanded the moratorium nationwide.

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In Ohio, lawmakers have been demanding the DeWine administration crack down on alleged fraud in the childcare and Medicaid space, with state Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania, sending a multi-member letter to the state’s childcare agency.

Williams called on officials to commit to "round-the-clock, unannounced inspections of all childcare facilities receiving public dollars."

A DeWine spokesperson told the Columbus Dispatch it would "not [be] accurate" to say there is "any sort of surge" in fraudulent behavior in Ohio.

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"If people are out there who could not contemplate that people were trying to defraud the public through daycare centers, I understand it's new to them... but it's been known to the state for decades," Dan Tierney said.

Osman noted in an unrelated statement that it has been 54 years since Somalia has chaired the Security Council, as it was only recently added back to the committee’s rotation.

"As we assume the presidency this month, Somalia will hold the highest standard of diplomacy and multilateral cooperation," Osman said, further pledging "efficiency, transparency, inclusivity, and consensus building," according to Turkish news outlet AA.

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Osman’s rise to take the rotating role of Security Council chief also ruffled feathers over a representative of a war-torn nation home to terrorist group Al-Shabaab leading a global security body.

The diplomat further irritated Western members by recently lambasting Israel:

"Actions of occupying power (Israel) in Palestine and indeed in the broader region are well documented. These actions constitute clear violations of international law," Osman claimed.

"What we see today... are acts to terrorize civilian populations and crimes against humanity and forced displacement of a whole community."

The United Kingdom will take over the U.N. Security Council from Somalia in February.

Fox News Digital reached out to the U.N. and the Somali Mission to the U.N. for comment for purposes of this story.