{"id":1010422,"date":"2026-08-19T08:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1010422\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T08:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:50:15","slug":"man-charged-in-medicaid-fraud-scheme-previously-received-minnesota-outstanding-refugee-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1010422\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged in Medicaid fraud scheme previously received Minnesota &#8216;Outstanding Refugee Award&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A man now charged in a more than $1 million Medicaid fraud case, in which some defendants have also been linked to a sex trafficking operation, previously received an award from the state of Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thirty-year-old Salman Elmi faces five counts of aiding and abetting theft by misrepresentation and three counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle for allegedly billing over $1 million in Medicaid-funded services that were never provided or weren\u2019t eligible for reimbursement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/kstp.com\/kstp-news\/top-news\/county-attorney-more-victims-likely-in-sprawling-sex-trafficking-scheme\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/kstp.com\/kstp-news\/top-news\/county-attorney-more-victims-likely-in-sprawling-sex-trafficking-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Charging documents show crossover between sex trafficking, Medicaid fraud schemes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Back in 2021, he received an \u201cOutstanding Refugee Award\u201d from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), the state agency that administers Medicaid funding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DHS, which ended the program in 2024 and has since taken down the web pages listing previous award winners, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that recipients didn\u2019t get any monetary or material award, just a certificate and plaque.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSalman Elmi\u2019s alleged actions are disturbing and do not reflect the goal of the Outstanding Refugee Awards. They also do not represent Minnesota\u2019s refugee community,\u201d DHS said in a statement. \u201cWe are surrounded by neighbors, coworkers, employees and friends, with powerful stories of resilience in the face of difficult circumstances, who are showing leadership in small as well as large ways to improve their communities. The Outstanding Refugee Awards were a way to recognize some of the individuals who make Minnesota better for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Minnesota Attorney General\u2019s Office, which runs the state\u2019s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit now charging Elmi, says Elmi ran a Reva Health facility in Golden Valley from 2024 through 2026. During that time, the state says he and others:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Falsified documents to get Medicaid reimbursement,<\/li>\n<li>Told employees to pay illegal kickbacks in exchange for recipients\u2019 permission to use their information for their fake claims,<\/li>\n<li>Used ineligible providers to offer adult rehabilitative mental health services to recipients, and<\/li>\n<li>Falsely claimed to have provided patients with proper supervision without actually doing so.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMedicaid fraud steals money meant to provide healthcare to our low-income friends and neighbors,\u201d\u00a0Attorney General Keith Ellison said.\u00a0\u201cIt is illegal and it makes my blood boil, which is why I\u2019m filing these charges and why I\u2019ve built a strong record of holding fraudsters accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Four other defendants, including a former Anoka County assistant attorney, are also facing charges related to promoting and profiting from prostitution. Elmi only faces fraud-related charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prosecutors allege the co-conspirators of the sex trafficking scheme ran fraudulent Medicaid service providers on the side and promised kickbacks to sex trafficking victims who collected the information of Medicaid enrollees.<\/p>\n<ol class=\"breadcrumb\"><strong>For Related Stories:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kstp.com\/tag\/awards\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Awards<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kstp.com\/tag\/fraud\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fraud<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kstp.com\/tag\/minnesota-department-of-human-services\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Department of Human Services<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kstp.com\/tag\/tracking-minnesota-fraud\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tracking Fraud<\/a><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man now charged in a more than $1 million Medicaid fraud case, in which some defendants have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1010423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[5800,820,346513,50,404523,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1010422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-awards","tag-fraud","tag-minnesota-department-of-human-services","tag-news","tag-tracking-fraud","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117121320730104925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}