LEWISTON — An Auburn man and a Portland woman were indicted on 23 combined federal counts in an alleged attempt to defraud the government of thousands of dollars from state and federal programs in a case that likely is linked to a federal raid of a Lewiston office building in June.

According to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, Yusuf Guled, 74, of Auburn arranged to have Dahabo Abdulle Osman, 58, of Portland serve as his personal care assistant to provide services for him at his home.

The indictment says Osman was paid based on false and fictitious time sheets that totaled more than $61,000.

Guled allegedly made false statements to nurse assessors to qualify for the services Osman was to provide, but which weren’t necessary.

Both defendants were charged with making false statements on their applications or for their continued eligibility to receive federal benefits, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Chapman said Tuesday.

Those benefits included:

• Supplemental Social Security income payments.

• Public housing or Section 8 subsidized housing.

• MaineCare.

• Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

• Food stamps.

Guled failed to disclose or falsely reported the number of bank accounts he held and the amounts they contained, the indictment says.

In August 2007, Guled had three bank accounts with combined balances of more than $25,000 while he was receiving benefits from at least three public programs, Chapman said.

Osman failed to disclose that she had gotten income as a personal care assistant. Over a three-year period ending June 2009, Osman was paid in that capacity from three agencies that provide such services to qualified MaineCare members. Those members are eligible to be admitted to a nursing home because they are unable to care for themselves and may choose to receive the services of a personal care assistant in their homes, according to the indictment.

One of the three agencies was in Portland, two were in Lewiston, the indictment says.

In early June, federal agents swarmed two floors of a downtown Lewiston office building, apparently seizing documents from two health care related organizations that provide personal home care assistants. The agents worked for the FBI as well as inspector general’s offices at Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agents spent hours packing up boxes of documents, then loaded them into government vehicles and drove off without answering reporters’ questions.

The two agencies that were raided were Global Home Health Care and Decent Home Care Inc. The two Lewiston agencies to which the indictment refers are not named but are identified generically as Agencies 2 and 3.

A similar raid was carried out that day on Allen Avenue in Portland.

In July 2006, Guled arranged for Osman to be hired as his personal care assistant, according to the indictment. From that date until November 2008, Osman was paid by the two Lewiston agencies and the unnamed Portland agency to provide Guled with services. At various times in 2006 and up to around March 2007, Osman lived with Guled in his public housing, the indictment says.

Three of the 16 counts with which Guled is charged carry maximum penalties of 10 years each in prison. The remaining 13 counts each carries a maximum term of five years of imprisonment.

Three of the counts against Osman carry maximum terms of imprisonment of 10 years; the remaining nine, five years apiece.

The maximum fine for each count is $250,000.

Guled has no phone listing in Auburn and could not be contacted for comment. Osman also could not be reached.

[email protected]