Four managers of home health care agencies in Maine were indicted by a federal grand jury this week on charges of conspiring to suppress essential workers’ wages and prevent competition during the pandemic.
Federal investigators allege that Faysal Kalayaf Manahe, Yaser Aali, Ammar Alkinani and Quasim Saesah – all Portland residents who manage individual home health agencies – made a secret pact to pay workers $15 or $16 dollars per hour, despite a higher reimbursement rate by the state meant to increase the workers’ pay to between $20.52 and $26.20 during the pandemic.
Some of their agencies had received Paycheck Protection Plan money, partly to go toward paying workers. Manahe’s company received $430,000, Aali’s company received $600,000, and Alkinani’s firm received $94,000, according to the indictment.
Investigators allege the defendants also agreed not to poach one another’s employees, and pressured other home health agencies to join the conspiracy and not to compete by offering higher wages to workers.
The investigation into the alleged wage-fixing scheme is ongoing, and more people could be charged in the future, prosecutors wrote.
Home health care workers assist people with daily tasks like dressing, bathing and eating. Their clients are often elderly or disabled or people who are otherwise unable to care for themselves.
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