St. Paul Man Charged in Medicaid Fraud Scheme Tied to People Accused of Running Sex Trafficking Ring

A 30-year-old man charged in a Medicaid fraud scheme is linked to several people accused of running a sex trafficking operation in Hennepin County, Minnesota, according to court documents.

Salman Ahmed Elmi of St. Paul, Minnesota, is charged with three counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle and five counts of aiding and abetting theft by false representation, a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County said. State records show he was previously given the Outstanding Refugee Award for Entrepreneurship by the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

Elmi, Frank Reeves, Viktoriya Komonash and Andrea Sampson are accused of running four agencies: Reva Health, Reva Autism, Helpful Housing and Homefelt Assisted Living. The complaint says they billed more than $4.5 million to Medicaid since 2023.

According to the court document, the fraud scheme started with recruiting young women who were homeless or struggling with addiction, housing or finances. From there, they would rent apartments in their names using fake pay stubs and enroll them in a pay for sex scheme that investigators say they’ve tracked since 2019.

{snip}