LEWISTON – Federal agents swarmed two floors of a downtown office building Wednesday, apparently seizing documents from two health care-related organizations.

A man who identified himself as a part owner of Global Home Health Care, which occupies offices on the fifth floor of the building, told the Sun Journal that a federal agency investigating allegations of fraud served him with a subpoena.

Garaad Dees said his organization provides in-home nonmedical health care-related services, including cooking and bathing. Those services are paid by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through Elder Independence of Maine, he said.

The agents told Dees that three-quarters of cases with similar allegations turn out to be nothing. He was allowed to leave his office after agents confiscated his cell phone, he said.

John Martins, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, said the state was alerted late Tuesday night to the possibility of a federal raid in Lewiston, but the agency was not informed of the target of the raid.

Typically, Martins said, “if the feds are involved, it relates to one of the federal benefit programs … a federal program that would be under scrutiny.”

There was no immediate indication whether the raid in Lewiston was related to a similar operation around the same time in Portland. In that city, FBI agents spent part of the morning at a home on Allen Avenue, from which investigators reportedly carried out several boxes and stacks of paper.

In Lewiston, at least a dozen agents wearing badges identifying them as FBI and agents with the federal Offices of Inspector General from the departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development removed documents in backpacks from an office or offices on the fourth and fifth floors of The Professional Building at 145 Lisbon St.

Later in the afternoon, officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were also seen at the building.

The building’s directory shows various occupants for those floors, including offices for Decent Home Care Inc. on the fourth floor. The fifth floor is occupied, according to the directory, by Global Home Health, among other professionals.

Documents left behind by federal agencies and recovered by the Sun Journal confirm Global’s five suites on the fifth floor were investigated and at least two cell phones from those offices were seized in the raid.

Agents shut down public access to the back end of the fourth floor and the entire fifth floor by stairwell. Access to the upper floor was allowed via elevator.

Agents occupying those two floors referred all inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland. U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby said Wednesday her office had no comment on the raid.

The Sun Journal was unable to discover which offices on those two floors, other than Global Home Health Care, may have been the target of the raid.

Federal agents from HUD escorted a man from the building on Lisbon Street to Centreville Parking Garage to a parked Ford Escape, registered to Decent Home Care Inc. The unidentified man showed agents his driver’s license and answered numerous questions.

One of the agents identified himself as working for forensics computer services at the Department of Health and Human Services. A spokesman for the Office of Inspector General said he couldn’t comment on investigative matters before the agency.

Agents, including those from an FBI evidence response team, cleared out of the building after 4 p.m., carting more than a dozen boxes by hand truck and loading them into vehicles with Massachusetts registrations.

Stephanie Beck, a counselor with an office on the sixth floor, said federal agents began arriving at 9:30 a.m. Beck said the excitement in the building caused several counseling clients to cancel their appointments or to simply not show up.

The Lewiston Police Department assisted federal agents with the raid. Local officers were instructed not to discuss which office or offices were the target of the investigation.

Investigators going up the elevator:

Lewiston police officer protecting the stairs:

Investigators carrying boxes to the car: