In 2021, Minnesota officials heaped praise upon Salman Ahmed Elmi of St. Paul. Five years down the road, he is awash in felony charges.
The Somali refugee faces eight charges in connection with a scheme that billed Medicaid for more than $1 million, according to a news release from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
From 2024 through 2026, Elmi operated Reva Health, which claimed it provided adult rehabilitative mental health services, the release said.
The release said, “ Elmi and other co-conspirators at Reva falsified documentation to obtain Medicaid reimbursement, instructed employees to pay recipients illegal kickbacks in exchange for those recipients’ permission to use their personal information in support of false claims for Medicaid reimbursements.”
Salman Elmi was awarded “Outstanding Refugee” by Minnesota.
He was just charged for a $1 million Medicaid fraud scheme. pic.twitter.com/cx4NkaxPOl
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 18, 2026
The release said that when services were provided, ineligible providers were used. Further, the conspirators who ran the agency falsely claimed they provided supervision to those served, the release said.
State records show Elmi was given the 2021 Outstanding Refugee Award for Entrepreneurship by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, according to CBS News.
Court documents claim the scheme involving the agency linked to the fraud recruited young women who were homeless or had financial, housing, or addiction issues.
Apartments would then be rented for the women using fake pay stubs while the women participated in a sex trafficking ring.
The complaint said Elmi and three co-conspirators stole victims’ identities and billed Medicaid using those names.
Elmi has not been charged in connection with sex trafficking.
According to KMSP-TV, two people linked to the alleged fraud were charged in connection with the sex trafficking ring — former Anoka County prosecutor Andrea Sampson and Frank Devone Reeves.
KMSP noted that until it was taken down, a state web page quoted Elmi as saying, “I started a business to help inspire other people.
“No one owns businesses in my family; my entire family came here with the idea that the American dream was just getting a job and making it work, so shifting that mindset was difficult but important. Navigating those treacherous waters allowed me to provide for my family and work on my terms,” the site quoted Elmi as saying.
You cannot make this up.
Salman Ahmed Elmi received an Entrepreneurship Award from the Walz-Flanagan administration.
His “business”: human trafficking and sexual abuse.
Fraud. Human trafficking. Theft. Rewarded by Walz-Flanagan.
Peggy Flanagan has been lieutenant governor for… pic.twitter.com/dewNefH0o2
— Michele Tafoya (@Michele_Tafoya) August 18, 2026
The criminal complaint alleges that Elmi and Sampson were in regular communication about the business side of the various entities linked to the fraud allegations, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
The complaint alleged Elmi and Reeves communicated often about both the fraud and sex trafficking operations.
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