Salman Elmi Charged in $4.5 Million Medicaid Fraud Linked to 2019 Sex-Trafficking Scheme
Updated
Updated · CBS New York · Aug 18
Salman Elmi Charged in $4.5 Million Medicaid Fraud Linked to 2019 Sex-Trafficking Scheme
3 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Aug 18
Summary
Eight felony counts accuse St. Paul resident Salman Ahmed Elmi, 30, of helping bill more than $4.5 million to Medicaid through four agencies since 2023, far above the roughly $1 million previously detailed.
Court documents say the scheme recruited homeless or financially struggling young women, rented apartments in their names with fake pay stubs, pushed them into a pay-for-sex operation investigators have tracked since 2019, then used stolen identities for Medicaid claims.
Elmi, Frank Reeves, Viktoriya Komonash and another associate are named in the complaint; investigators say Elmi incorporated Reva Health, took a loan and later moved nearly $150,000 from its accounts to his own business.
A judge released Elmi on Monday after his arrest warrant was executed, ordering him to surrender his passport and stay in Minnesota; Reeves, Sampson and Komonash were arrested Friday, and Elmi's next hearing is Oct. 4.
The case widens from healthcare fraud into trafficking allegations, with advocates saying the arrests show how exploitation can be embedded in ordinary community and business networks.